


Our Unwritten Story

by Steph_the_blue2002



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Gangs, LGBTQ Character, M/M, Teen Angst, Teen Romance, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:01:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26752513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steph_the_blue2002/pseuds/Steph_the_blue2002
Summary: A new town, a new school, a new life. This is a story that follows a group of teens who had to grow up far too quickly and a group of adults trying to keep them safe.
Relationships: Franky/Nico Robin, Koala/Sabo (One Piece), Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Nami/Nefertari Vivi, Portgas D. Ace/Smoker, Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji
Comments: 20
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter one-Law-Laughing at your father is NOT appropriate behaviour

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Calystegia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6410923) by [madansemacabre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/madansemacabre/pseuds/madansemacabre). 



It was nighttime when Law arrived in the city of Goa. The lights of the city glowed dazzlingly. The incredible amount of light pollution blocked the view of the stars, that Law had come to know and love. He stood outside his new house, squinting, trying with all his might to see those beautiful stars of his childhood. 

“Law, hurry up and come inside. You’ll catch a cold.” Cora called to him invitingly from inside the new house. Law smiled back at his new father, before slowly jogging towards his new front door.

Sitting at the small table in the kitchen, Cora proclaimed his disapproval at the fact that school for Law and his adopted brother Bepo, started tomorrow. 

“I just don’t see why you have to go to school so soon” Cora professed angrily, raising his hands as an illustration to his distaste for this ‘predicament’. Personally Law didn’t see what the big deal was, he wanted to go to school. It would keep his mind off everything that had happened.

“Y’know what,” Cora announced, snapping Law out of his bitter thoughts. “I’m just going to call you in sick tomorrow, we can have the day off and just settle in.” As Cora started to babble on about how they had to take the day off, Bepo and Law shared a look of justified panic. They didn’t want to stay home, they wanted to go to school, forget all their problems, make new friends and scope out their new classes. Even if just for a little while, they wanted to forget.

“Hey, hold on Cora!” Law bursted out. “If you take the first day off, what kind of message will that send to your new boss?” Law was desperate for Cora to change his mind. Cora’s new job was as a police officer in the Goa central police department. Cora sighed as he contemplated his options; take a day off to settle in with his new sons in this strange new town, at the risk of a bad first impression, or; go to work and risk leaving the boys alone in an unfamiliar place surrounded by unfamiliar people. It was a predicament to say the least.

Cora looked at Law and Bepo’s face’s, their eyes pleaded at him to let them go. Cora didn’t want to let them go, after all they had been through in the past few months, he just wanted to wrap them in his arms and keep them there. He wanted to keep them safe, warm and protected from all the dangers that lay beyond the reach of his arms. But, alas, he knew he couldn’t. They were teens, blossoming into adulthood, they needed space to run and room to grow. They needed to experience life away from the arms of their guardian, away from the prying eyes of adults. Only then would they become strong, independent men. 

Cora sighed again. “Alright you two, since you want to go so bad, I’ll let you.” Even though it went against his better judgment, the way his wards eyes lit up in joy at his compliance, put his heart at ease. If only just a little.

Law and Bepo on the other hand, knew nothing of Cora’s anxiety and were simply overjoyed to have gotten what they wanted. They looked at eachother, their smiles displaying their pure unadulterated joy at the prospect of going out and seeing their new world. Hopefully their only world for the next few years. 

The family of three ate the rest of their dinner in relative silence, although not an uncomfortable one. The kind of silence that didn’t hold a feeling of doom over the table like a miasma. Instead it floated through the air around them spreading the sense of excitement at the prospect of starting this whole new life in a brand new town. Another chance at first impressions, new friends and teachers, new places to go and new things to see. And as the dinner continued, Cora felt the worry in his heart dissipate, eventually being embraced by positive energy that the two younger boys were releasing. 

After the dinner was over and the dishes had been cleaned, the younger boys prepared themselves for tomorrow. Filling their bags with books and gym clothes, filling their hearts with even more anticipation. Later that night, after having showered, Law lay in his bed, staring up at his new ceiling covered in new cracks and stains. The excitement he had felt previously was rapidly becoming anxiety. ‘What if nobody likes him?’ ‘What if he doesn’t like his classes?’ “What if he gets lost or embarrasses himself?’ These were a few of the dark thoughts swirling around his head. Law was a very logical person though, he quickly brushed these thoughts off with the justification of, ‘Everyone has thoughts like these before doing something new.’ 

Law fell asleep that night with a storm brewing in the back of his mind. That storm followed him through his dreamless sleep and to the next morning when he awoke. The sun outside was barely visible over the horizon, the smell of toast burning in the kitchen pushed him out of bed quicker than he would have liked, his head spun and lights danced across his vision. He resisted the urge to fall to his knees and pushed through it towards the stairs, hoping that it would be over by the time he got there, not wanting to risk going down the stairs in this condition. 

He was in luck, by the time he made it to the stairs the dizziness had subsided and his vision had cleared. As he arrived in the kitchen, the smoke was a thick layer coating the ceiling. As Law looked for the source of the cloud, he followed it to the toaster where Cora was standing, running his hands through his hair in panic. This was a terrible omen to how his day might end up. 

“I was just trying to make you and Bepo a good breakfast before your first day.” Cora exclaimed, his voice a high, stressed whine. Law sighed and made his way past the taller man to the window above the sink. He opened it to release some of the trapped smoke. “It's ok Cora, everyone knows that you can’t cook to save your life.” He smiled at the tall blonde man and moved to the pantry and cupboards to fix himself some cereal. As Law was eating the over sugared, marshmallow-y cereal, Bepo walked down to the kitchen. His white hair was disheveled and his chin was still wet from where he had drooled during the night. Bepo dragged his feet, sleep walking almost, to the cupboard where he followed Law’s example and fixed a bowl of cereal. They ate together sleepily and when they were done they left their bowls in the sink and made their way up the stairs to get ready. 

Law looked in the floor length mirror, his black hair wouldn’t sit right and his faded blue jeans bunched wrong and felt too tight in some places and too loose in others. All in all though, Law knew he would be fine. It would all be fine. Law sighed at himself as he made do with what he had.

The car ride to Goa public high was short, the school was actually within walking distance of his house, a mere two blocks away. As they pulled into a parking bay out the front of the office, Cora sighed again, he unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to face his two passengers.

“Boys, you know i love you, right?” Law and Bepo nodded quietly, unsettled by the sudden seriousness of their adopted father. Cora continued in the same soft yet serious voice. “Thats why, if anything happens, I want you to call me immediately, okay.” the boys nodded again before grabbing their bags and making their way to the office. Cora pulled away after they had stepped into the office and made his way to work. 

Law made his way to the front desk, taking the initiative to save his adopted brothers nerves. Out the big glass doors on the other side of the office, he could see other students mingling in the quad. A boy with dark hair, mostly covered by a straw hat, launched on a taller green haired man. The guy with green hair, despite looking disgruntled, made no attempt to remove the smaller male. ‘Maybe I should avoid people like that…’ Law thought to himself, hoping to avoid as much physical contact as possible. 

“May I help you?” asked the blond secretary from behind her computer. The entire time, her long acrylic nails clicked away at her keyboard busily. Law looked her up and down, her metal name badge read ‘Khalifa’. “We’re- um- here to pick up our schedule.” Law stuttered out. She sighed, as if annoyed that she had to actually do her job. Khalifa clicked away at her keyboard again. She looked up, her face displaying equal annoyance as the earlier sigh. “Names please.” she asked, her voice was monotonous. “Bepo and Law Trafalgar.” Law announced with as much confidence as he could possibly muster. 

Khalifa clicked and clacked on her keyboard again, before she rose to fetch the schedules from the printer on the other side of the small office space. She moved forward to the front of the office and handed the freshly printed schedules through the underside of the bullet-proof glass.

The bullet-proof glass was disconcerting to Law. This was a highschool, not a prison...right? “Please wait here while I fetch the vice principal.” Khalifa drawled in the same monotone voice. Nonetheless, Law and Bepo took a seat in the armless, cushion-less chairs. After a short while, a large man with dark curly hair appeared out of a hallway and motioned for the boys to follow him. “Nice to meet you boys, I’m vice principal Lucci.” he handed the boys a map each. The group of three walked through the halls. Mr. Lucci led Law and Bepo to a row of lockers in a crowded hallway. The eyes of the other students followed them closely as they made their way to their new lockers.

“ These will be your lockers for the year.” Mr. Lucci announced while gesturing to two lockers located side by side. “And these…” Mr. Lucci began while handing a slip of paper to each boy. “Will be your lock combinations. I suggest you memorize them and never share them around.” Then Mr. Lucci left, before Law even had a chance to ask anything about the bullet-proof glass. 

Law looked at his new schedule, his first class, every monday for the rest of the year was… advanced Spanish… great. Before Law had time to stew in his own bitterness, a loud laugh snapped him from his dark thoughts. The straw-hatted boy he had seen from the office was standing at the locker to the right of his. Leaning against it. He was talking to a group of students, which had grown significantly from when he had seen him earlier.

The tall, green haired boy still remained in the group, but now he was arguing with an equally tall blonde boy. Others added to the group included; a girl with short red hair, an African American boy with a wild ponytail and a short boy with soft-looking light brown hair. The group laughed merrily, seemingly following the lead of the boy with the straw hat, who was still stationed next to him. 

As Law was studying the teens near him, he failed to notice that the loud dark haired boy had noticed him. “I don’t know you.” the boy announced loudly, Law didn’t know how to respond to that. “How don’t I know you?” Law looked away awkwardly. “I’m new…” Law responded, trailing off at the end.

“OH MY GOD, REALLY? WHERE ARE YOU FROM?” The dark haired boy yelled explosively, his face was frighteningly close to Law’s. Law took a step back, trying to distance himself from the other boy. “My name’s Luffy.” The other boy revealed in a calmer tone. “What’s yours?” Law turned himself away in another attempt to distance himself from Luffy. “Law Trafalgar.” Law answered, his voice filled with anxiety and barely above a whisper.

Luffy opened his mouth again, as if he were about to say something. Law prayed internally that he wouldn’t and his prayers were answered. The bell rang, echoing through the halls. Whatever Luffy was about to say was quickly forgotten as he opened his locker, the one he was previously leaning on, and grabbed his books for the next two periods. Law followed suit, grabbing his advanced Spanish textbook, as well as a folder full of lined paper to take notes on. He slammed the locker door and stared at the paper again. His class was in room 301, he looked at the classrooms surrounding him, all of them were numbered in the low 20’s. ‘Great.’ Law thought to himself. From appearances, it seemed like his classroom would be on the top floor of this massive school. The school itself was three stories high and each floor had 150 classrooms. On the other side of the quad was a massive gymnasium. Law looked left and right, searching for the staircase. He found it, three classrooms to the left on the same side as his locker. 

He climbed both flights of stairs. He followed the classroom numbers with his eyes. Directly ahead of him was room 305, 307 was to the left and 305 was to the right. Law turned to the right and actively followed the numbers downward, weaving through the crowds of other students. He found 301 on the left and walked inside. As he entered the classroom, he stalled, to his shock and horror he found Luffy from the lockers sitting next to one of the only available seats left in class. He moved again, about to take the seat away from Luffy, when a girl pushed past him and sat in the aforementioned seat. Law internally sighed, as he prepared himself for what was most certainly about to be a long class. He sat next to Luffy and the boy smiled at him enthusiastically. 

The teacher walked in with a coffee in one hand and a pile of books in the other. She abandoned them both on the desk and stepped to the whiteboard, a marker in her hand. In sweet curly writing she scribbled down her name. “Hello class, it’s lovely to meet you all, from this point onward you shall all refer to me as Senorita Viola, I can’t wait to enjoy the rest of the year with you.” 

With the introductions finished, she made her way through role call, where Law learned that Luffy’s last name was Monkey. She then instructed them to open their books, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote. They began reading as a class, taking it in turns. They started at the back, in the left corner of the room, four rows back from Law’s row. They continued like this for a while, some people reading the Spanish with perfect fluency and some stuttering horribly. It eventually reached Law’s turn and he performed with admirable perfection. Luffy was next and in Law’s opinion he was odd. He stuttered miserably over some simple words but read the more difficult ones with perfect clarity. As Luffy re-seated himself, Law turned to him. “Why are you taking advanced Spanish?” Law whisper yelled at Luffy. “I’m from Brazil.” Luffy answered. “I already know Portugese, so my brother thought I should learn spanish too.” Suddenly it was clear to Law why Luffy’s reading was weird. A Lot of the harder words in this book were incredibly similar to their Portugese counterparts. 

Suddenly, the current reader said something that sounded familiar to Law. He turned away from Luffy and flicked through the pages of his book to find the current page. When he found it his eyes scanned it, looking for that familiar word. He found it as the name of an incredibly clumsy horse, Rocinante. His adopted father shared a name with a clumsy horse. Law could no longer help himself, he burst out laughing with abandon. Senorita Viola glared at him furiously. Law quickly covered his outburst with a cough and apologised. The student continued reading but, alas, Law could no longer help himself. He burst out with laughter every time the name Rocinante was read. At some point, for some reason, Luffy had joined him in his uncontrollable laughter. 

“If you boys cannot take this class seriously, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Senorita Viola announced loudly, but to her dismay, her words fell upon deaf ears. Law and Luffy continued laughing hysterically. By this point Senorita Viola had had enough. “Out, get out of my classroom this instant.” she yelled lividly. Luffy and Law sat against the wall in the hallway as they attempted to settle themselves. Suddenly, it hit Law. “Why are you laughing?” Law inquired to Luffy. “Your laugh was contagious.” Luffy answered cheerfully. Out of nowhere Law had the thought that, maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad. 

Luffy and Law continued chatting and laughing joyfully, that is until Senorita Viola came out and gave them both a detention After they were dismissed for lunch Luffy left to go find his friends and Law left to go find his brother. When he found him Law soon learned that Bepo had made friends in his class. The friends' names were Penguin and Shachi. Law sat at the metal picnic table Bepo, Penguin and Shachi. They laughed and chatted all the way through lunch. At the end of lunch however, something strange happened. Instead of the usual bell to signal the beginning of the next class, they heard an announcement that there was to be an assembly in the gymnasium immediately. 

Law, Bepo, Shachi and Penguin made their way to the gym where they were seated on the hard, polished, wooden floors. Law looked across the sea of students, he locked eyes with Luffy who, as always, was surrounded by his friends. Luffy waved at Law, Law waved back and turned to stare at the stage. A large man stepped onto the stage and the whole school hushed like a mexican wave. He could see people whispering to each other, from that Law could only assume that nobody knew who this guy was.

“Good afternoon students.” The stranger began. “My name is Akainu Sakazuki and from this point onward I will be your new principal.” The whispering became more apparent as the students questioned among themselves who this new principal was exactly. After a short break, Akainu continued.

“As most of you may know, this school has a major gang problem. Well to that I say; no more. If I witness any gang activity, any at all, instant suspension. Three strikes and you’re out. You’re all excused. Enjoy your last classes.” The meeting was short but anything but sweet. This man had waltzed into the school and declared war on every gang in the school. As far as Law knew, that was almost half the student body. Law scanned the room, almost everyone was glaring at Akainu. The aforementioned man matched their glares with equal intensity. Even Luffy and his friends were glaring at Akainu. 

The students made their way to the doors at the side of the gym, muttering and whispering all the way. Ahead of him, Law saw Akainu pull someone to the side. It was a senior boy, he was tall with short, pineapple-esque hair. They spoke briefly before Akainu dismissed him. The boy returned to the crowd and started conversing with another, albeit gaudily dressed, senior. This new senior was also tall, he had long black hair. The reason Law described him as gaudy though, was due to his garish clothing choices. The other boy was dressed in an orange button down shirt with a rainbow tie dye singlet underneath. He also wore a pair of checkered, brown, cargo shorts. On his feet were a pair of well worn leather boots. THe most noticeable item of clothing however was the bright orange cowboy hat on his head. A black string hung from the hat and dangled at older boys collarbones. All in all, in Law’s opinion, it was a horrible outfit selection. Out of nowhere, Luffy approached the gaudy senior, Luffy was an incredibly friendly person in general, in Law’s opinion, so it was of no surprise that Luffy knew the older boy. What did surprise Law was that Lufft hugged the senior and the senior accepted it. 

Law made his way to double math in silence, until Bepo started talking to him. “Peng and Shachi said they’d walk home with us, that’s cool of them.” and then it hit Law, he hadn’t told Bepo about his detention. “Um,” Law began. “Don’t worry about me… I have detention.” Bepo stopped, aghast, “What do you mean? How did you get detention on the first day?” Bepo seemed genuinely curious. Law pulled out the slip he was given by Senorita VIola. “I was being a distraction to myself and others” he read aloud and in an accent. “How were you of all people a distraction?’ Bepo’s voice gave off an air of disbelief. “I was laughing with another student…” Law answered embarrassedly. “Who was the other student?” Bepo continued questioning. “Luffy .D. Monkey” Before Bepo could respond with anything, an arm was slung over his and Law’s shoulders and Shachi’s head appeared between them.

“So,” Shachi began. “You ran into hurricane Monkey?” ‘Hurricane Monkey?’ Law thought to himself. ‘Ah, he must mean Luffy.’ Law nodded to Shachi and seated himself in his class. The class passed slowly and by the time it had ended Law was ready to go home. But, alas, he still had detention. 

Law sighed inwardly and headed towards the office, where his school day had begun. He handed the pink detention slip to Khalifa, that annoyed look still permanently etched into her face. He was directed to a small classroom, just off the office and was sat next to a pink haired freshman. The students were left alone in the classroom for a good ten minutes before a tall, albeit odd, looking man entered the room. 

“Hey kids.” the man started by yelling. “I’m Mr. Mikini but y’all can call me Franky. So, how’d y’all get detention on the first day? Was this something you set out to do or did this just kinda happen?” Franky blabbered on and on until eventually he stopped, Law could only assume he either finished or realised that nobody was listening. 

Law sat in his seat reading for another 15 minutes until Cora walked in, looking pissed beyond belief. “We’ll deal with this at home Law, now pack up, you have five minutes left.” That was all Cora said. “HEY, YOU CAN’T BE MAD AT ME, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!” Cora gave Law a puzzled look before walking away. 

The pink haired girl beside Law popped her bubble gum. “Who was that?” She questioned. Law sat down again. “My dad… Why?” The girl whistled lowley. “Do you want a stepmom?” Law was filled with utter disgust. What the hell was with this chick? “Who even are you?” Law responded, answering a question. “Name’s Bonny. Now is your dad completely proportional?” Law was getting real sick and tired of this chick. 

Law audibly sighed, steeling himself for what he was about to say. “IF YOU DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT MY DAD’S DICK, I AM GOING SLAM YOUR FACE INTO A FUCKING DESK!” Just as Law finished threatening the young girl beside him he turned and saw Cora staring at him aghast. 

Law swallowed a ball of dread. “How much of that did you hear?” Law asked, visibly flinching. “Oh just THE PART WHERE YOU THREATENED TO SLAM A GIRL’S FACE INTO A DESK! What the hell Law?” Law sighed again, this had not been a good day.


	2. Chapter two-Ace-Who is this mother fucker?

Ace looked around. He was surrounded by three grey, concrete, walls and one wall made entirely of metal bars. He was in jail. Why was he in jail? “So, yer finally awake?” A gruff, gravely voice asked from somewhere in his general direction. Ace was still hazy from his impromptu sleep, so he didn’t notice the man sitting across from his cell. He jumped in surprise, his eyes adjusted and he saw the owner of the voice. The man across from him was tall, he had gray hair and a five o-clock shadow covering his chin. The man looked like a gift, a six foot tall, muscle filled gift. “Why am I in jail?” Ace asked after he had regained his mental stability. 

“You’re not in jail, you’re in the drunk tank.” The drunk tank? Why was he in the drunk tank? “I’m not drunk. Why am I in the drunk tank?” the man sighed. “I know that. What I also know, is that you have narcolepsy.” The man sounded tired and Ace felt slightly guilty. Hold on, if this man was a cop, why didn’t Ace know him, he thought he knew every cop in this town.

“Who are you?” Ace inquired, his curiosity filling him with anxiety. “Name’s Chase Smoker.” The man gruffed, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Ace almost laughed at the irony. Smoker continued. “I’m the new chief of police.” “WHAT?” Ace burst out. “I thought I knew every cop in town. Especially the chief.” Smoker was visibly taken aback. “That doesn’t fill me with very much confidence.” Ace suddenly had an epiphany. “How’d you know I have narcolepsy?” It wasn’t like Ace kept his disorder a secret, but at the same time it wasn’t exactly public knowledge. Smoker rolled his eyes. “The medical alert bracelet, y’know that fancy thing hangin’ off your wrist.” ‘Oh that makes sense.’ Ace thought to himself. 

“So what’s yer name kid?” Smoker asked as he stood. “Name’s Ace .D. Portgas and I’m not a kid.” Ace responded, offended at being called a kid. Smoker smirked. “Oh really, how old are yer then?” Ace ‘tsk’ed’ before responding. “I’m 17, turning 18 soon.” Smoker looked shocked before he recomposed himself. “Oh yeah, when? Next July?” Smoker seemed disbelieving. “No.” Ace began, always ready to prove a cop wrong. “January first.” Ace couldn’t help but smirk at the look of utter shock that crossed Smoker’s face. “Well yer not 18 yet so yer still a kid to me kid. Or with the way you behave maybe I should call you, Brat?” Ace could have died then and there. Hearing this man, the living epitome of tall, dark and handsome, had just called him brat. Ace’s gay heart skipped a beat. 

“Well, you coming brat?” Smoker asked, snapping Ace out of his musings. Ace grabbed his green backpack and followed Smoker out of the building, he was shocked by the level of darkness outside. The moon was high above them and the sun had long since set. Ace groaned. “What time is it?” Ace asked, praying internally that it was just very dark at seven o-clock. “It’s two in the morning.” Smoker gruffed out, his voice full of annoyance. “Why are you still here then?” Ace asked. Usually the chief had gone home long before this time.  
“Well somebody had to take you home, right?” Ace stalled and felt his heart die slightly. If he showed up home in a police officer, Dadan would surely kill him. “You don’t need to do that. My place is on the complete other side of town y’know.” Smoker rolled his eyes at this. “Of course I’m driving you home, it’s two in the morning for fucks sake.” Ace felt his heart swell with an indescribable emotion. Then, all of a sudden, it dropped again. “Where d’you live brat?” Ace gulped audibly before responding. “Corvo road…” Ace’s voice was barely above a whisper. Smoker stopped, to Ace it appeared that anger flashed across his face. It wouldn’t have shocked Ace either. Nobody really liked in the Windmill district, the busses and taxis wouldn’t go near the place for fear of being mugged, or worse yet, murdered. Ace waited for Smoker to change his mind and turn around, but it didn’t happen.

Smoker looked crosser than ever, his brows were furrowed and his eyes were downcast. “I’m walking you up to your goddamn front door.” Ace was snapped out of his anxiety and his heart melted. This man, this policeman, was so willing to help, to make sure he was safe. Ace laughed as he sat in the passenger seat. “You don’t need to go that far, I don’t think my foster mom would like that either.” Smoker thought about this for a moment. “Okay.” He began. “But don’t let me hear about you winding up dead tomorrow.” Ace laughed again. “So when’d you start?” Ace asked, curiosity bubbling through every word. “I just started yesterday morning, I found you while I was on patrol.” 

The pair drove in silence for a short while, in his head however, Ace was planning how the rest of his night would end up. ‘Okay, so, I’ll get home at about three-ish. Luffy better be in bed and he better be asleep. That’ll give me a solid two hours of sleep, hoping that everything goes well.’ They pulled up to the small dirt road known as Corvo Road. Just as Ace went to step out, he was stopped by Smoker’s hand being wrapped around Ace’s wrist. “Hey kid, I mean it, be careful. Okay.” Ace smiled as he turned around. “I’m not a kid, remember?” 

Ace stepped out and away from the car, but before he had made it very far at all, two teenagers stepped out bushes. The teen boys were armed with small handguns and seemed to take no notice of the police car less than six feet away. “GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND GIVE US THE FUCKING BACKPACK!” The boy on the left yelled and waved his gun at Ace. The boy on the right however, had apparently noticed exactly who they were attempting to mug.

“Hey, bro, do you know who the fuck this is?” The boy on the right asked, fear in his eyes as he stared at Ace. “Huh, whaddya mean?” The boy on the left asked as he moved around, into the light, to see Ace’s face better. The man on the left visibly recoiled as he recalled exactly who the guy in front of him was.

The boys looked at each other and then away. “Dude, let’s get the fuck outta here. It’s the fucking Corvo demon.” The boys sprinted, as if being chased by a monster. Smoker looked at Ace, his hand already on his pistol. “I’m too tired to even bother asking.” Smoker announced, before driving away, waving his hand out the window. 

Ace chuckled as he made his way down the dirt path to the old, worn down, former schoolhouse that Ace called home. The building was dirty and over filled, the grass was above Ace’s waist and every room was filled with hundreds of people. All of them were crooks of their own kind, some professional pick-pocketers and some were con men. Needless to say, this wasn’t a place where cops were welcomed. 

Ace attempted to make it through the house without tripping over any of the multiple bodies lying across the floor. He climbed the rickety old ladder, up to the annex where he and Luffy slept. It wasn’t much, but it was home. Their room was pretty bare boned, it had two ‘beds’ which were actually old, abandoned mattresses on the floor. It also had a small flat screen television and a wooden chest with a padlock on it. Hooked up to the TV was a Nintendo Switch which had been gifted to them last Christmas. 

Ace chuckled as he noticed Luffy, tucked up in his bed, snoring away. Ace plugged in his Motorola to charge, after a little while, it turned on. Ace’s heart sunk as he saw just how many texts and phone calls from his friends. Marco was going to kill him tomorrow. He shot Marco and Sabo a single text each, both saying the same thing; “I think I met the met the man of my dreams” 

As Ace lay in bed, his thoughts began to wander. His thoughts wandered to the handsome policeman who was so kind to him. Ace’s heart fluttered as he remembered the way Smoker had looked at him and the way he had grabbed Ace’s arm. This man was absolutely perfect in Ace’s opinion, he was strong, kind and delectably handsome. Ace couldn’t stop himself from remembering the way Smokers uniform was pulled taught around his biceps and the veins in his arms that were visible where he had rolled his sleeves. As Ace fell asleep, he smiled as he imagined this amazing man, who had looked after him, well past his line of duty. 

Ace woke again around an hour and a half later, the sun barely shone and the stars were still as bright as they were when he had arrived a few hours ago. Ace sat in his bed, he stretched and stood up. He grabbed some clothes and a towel from the locked chest and left the annex to shower. As Ace turned on the hot water, the old metal pipes roared to life. Ace winced at the noise, he only hoped that he didn’t wake Luffy, the other members of this household could damn well deal with it. 

Not long after Ace had entered the shower, he heard a yell from directly below him. “IF YOU USE ALL MY HOT WATER, I’LL FUCKING TURN IT OFF.” Dadan screamed at him. “YOU ALREADY DO THAT WHEN YOU DON’T PAY THE FUCKING BILLS.” Ace yelled in response. ‘Nothing like Dadan screaming at you to wake you up.’ Ace finished his shower quickly and made his way downstairs to get ready for school.

Ace made his way to the kitchen and searched among the dirty dishes for something to cook on. After he found a mostly clean fry pan and spatula, he went up the annex and grabbed the green bag from last night. Out of the bag he grabbed, four eggs and a few rashers of bacon. Ace returned to the kitchen and began cooking. As Ace was plating his and Luffy’s breakfast, Magra came up behind him and tried to steal some of the bacon. Ace slapped Magra’s hand away. “If you want breakfast, cook it yourself.” Ace demanded. Magra scowled and muttered. “I know about the food you hide up in that annex of yours.” Ace simply rolled his eyes at this. “I wouldn’t have to but some people keep stealing all the food I keep in the fridge.” Ace declared before grabbing the plates and turning away from Magra. 

He climbed back up the annex and saw Luffy still fast asleep. Ace chuckled to himself and moved to Luffy’s side of the room and crouched down low. He shoved Luffy lightly on the arm, Luffy groaned lightly. “C’mon Lu, time to wake up.” Ace called lightly. Luffy only mumbled and turned around. Ace sighed. “If you don’t wake up right now, I’ll eat your share of breakfast.” Luffy was up in a heartbeat and was yelling about how it was his breakfast. 

Ace just laughed and sat on his bed to eat his own meal. As he was eating his meal, Ace’s phone buzzed to notify a text. He opened it and saw that it was from Sabo, all it read was; “I’ll see you later ;)” “Hey Lu,” Ace began. “Did we have plans with Sabo today?” Luffy looked at him quizzically. “No, why?” Ace brushed it off with a simple; “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” After he had finished eating, he pulled out some clothes for Luffy and proceeded to continue getting them both ready. “Please tell me you at least had a shower?” Ace asked desperately. Luffy rolled his eyes. “Of course I did, Nami said she’d beat my ass if I didn’t..” Luffy explained, albeit disgruntledly. Ace however, mentally thanked Nami for her no nonsense attitude and her ability to make Luffy behave.

Ace and Luffy walked to the bus stop. Luffy looked at Ace quizzically. “Aren’t you taking the bus too?” Luffy asked as he noticed Ace walking past the stop, leaving Luffy behind. Ace simply laughed again. “Hell no,” He began. “Only freshman dweebs like you take the bus. I ride with Marco and the gang.” and with that, Ace turned around and ran off down the road.

Ace continued running until he reached Party’s bar and coffee house. “Hey Makino.” Ace called out as he entered the store. The pretty young woman named Makino turned around and smiled at Ace. “Hey Ace, aren’t you gonna be late?” She asked kindly. Ace smiled back at her. “Nah I’m not gonna be late, besides I need some of your beautiful coffee for someone special.” Makino giggled and began preparing the coffee before she stopped and looked at Ace. “Let me guess.” she began. “You have no idea how he takes it?” Ace turned his head to the side and rubbed his neck sheepishly. Makino chuckled and began to place things in a small brown paper bag. “I’ll take that as a no then.” She continued. 

Ace took the freshly brewed coffee and the bag of creams and sugars and jogged his way to the police station. He arrived at the station at around eight thirty. Ace sighed in relief, he still had plenty of time before school. He stepped into the office and was greeted by officer Bellemere from behind her desk. “Hey Ace, I never thought I’d see the day where you walk into a cop shop willingly.” Ace laughed at her. “Nah just gotta return a favour. Is the chief in?” Bellemere indicated to a door off to the left of her. 

Ace walked through the door and saw Smoker sitting behind a desk, puffing on a cigarette. His face was tired and his eyes were bloodshot. He noticed Ace and his face contorted into one of confusion. “Why’re you here?” Smoker grunted our sleepily. 

“Well…” Ace began. “I thought you’d be tired after staying so late last night.” Ace held up the coffee. “So I brought you some of the best coffee in town.” Something flashed across Smokers face as he stared at the coffee. Ace put it down in front of Smoker, as well as the little brown bag before turning around and waving to the Chief as he left. As he was leaving, Bellemere called out to him again. “Was that coffee from Makino’s? Where’s mine?” She asked, completely joking. Ace laughed loudly. “Still in the pot.” He called as he ran out the door. 

Ace ran a little ways down the street, before he saw and subsequently flagged down Marco’s car. Marco pulled over his bright red, 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. He looked absolutely pissed. Ace clambered in the back seat next to Thatch. Before he even put the car into gear, Marco turned around. His brows were scrunched in a furious rage. “WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU?” Marco was almost screaming. Ace felt sheepish at this stage. “I was in jail….” He admitted quietly. Marco’s face changed to one of concern. “If you were in jail, why didn’t you call me? I would have bailed you out.” Ace didn’t doubt the honesty of those words in the slightest. “I wasn’t in jail, jail. I had an attack and passed out on a park bench so the new chief put me in the drunk tank until I woke up, then he drove me home.” Ace explained. The other three boys in the car paused to contemplate this, before they deemed it an acceptable explanation. After a little while, Marco spoke up again. “That doesn’t explain the weird text, what was that about.” A look of realisation came over Ace’s face as he remembered the text he had sent just before he fell asleep. “Oh yeah, that new chief was hot as fuck. Why wasn’t I told about a new police chief?” Marco rolled his eyes at this. “Well if you’d been at the meeting last night, then you would have been informed. That was what the entire meeting was about.” 

Marco passed an iPad to Ace, the screen on the iPad displayed a powerpoint presentation. The first slide had, in big, bold writing; “New officers in town.” Ace flipped through the slides, he noticed something about an officer Trafalgar. Trafalgar Rocinante and his sons, Trafalgar Law and Trafalgar Bepo. They had just moved into town yesterday. Law was supposed to be in Luffy’s homeroom. This concerned Ace, This Trafalgar seemed to have some really heavy baggage. Ace flipped further through the presentation until he found the general information page on Smoker. Ace was incredibly disappointed to find such little information. Ace looked up at Marco. “What’s up with this? Normally you know everything down to what kind of boxers they wear.” Marco gave out a little sigh. “There’s surprisingly little information on this mother fucker.” Marco was absolutely livid. 

Marco’s information gathering skills were top notch, so for Marco to not know anything on somebody, this was dangerous. Marco pulled into the principal parking bay, the school hadn’t had a principal for almost 20 years so it was never really any trouble. After Ace had left the car, he saw Luffy and the school bus arrive. He watched Luffy and his friends pile quickly out of the bus. Out of nowhere, the whole parking lot was filled with quiet mutters and gasps as a white Tesla Model X pulled into one of the bays. Ace and Luffy starred in silence as they contemplated exactly who could be driving such an over the top car to such a downtrodden, trashy school. 

Their questions were soon answered by a mop of blonde hair that peeked out of the driver’s seat. Ace and Luffy’s faces lit up in joy. “SABO!” They yelled in unison as they launched themselves at their other brother. Sabo laughed as he caught his brothers in his arms. “What are you doing here?” Ace asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to st snobs school for snobs in snob training?” Sabo laughed at Ace’s joking name for the private school his parents had wanted him to attend. “I managed to convince them to let me go here at the last second.” He replied happily. 

The three brothers were thrilled to finally be together again. Before long another car distracted the trio and subsequently, the rest of the parking lot as well. A 1965 Mercedes-Benz hearse. ‘Who the hell takes a hearse to school?’ Ace thought to himself. As if to answer his question, out of the car stepped none other than Perona Mihawk and her manservant/classmate Kumashi. Ace felt slightly sorry for Kumashi, Perona wouldn’t even let the poor guy speak. Just as everyone was getting over the appearance of the hearse, Kumashi opened the back of the car and everyone was shocked and appalled all over again. In the back of the hearse was a coffin. Ace and Sabo looked at each other and they seemed to be thinking the same thing; ‘Why the fuck is there a coffin?’ Before they could think anything more on the topic, the coffin opened up to reveal a tall green haired boy that the three brothers all knew to be Zoro Roronoa. 

Luffy launched at his friend and his brothers soon followed after. “Why the hell were you in a fucking coffin man?” Ace asked while helping Zoro step out of the hearse. Zoro sighed. “The old man said she could have the car if she agreed to take me to school everyday.” That much made sense to Ace.“But why in a coffin?” Ace was still curious about that. At this, Zoro looked disgruntled at this. “She said she would rather die than be seen in a car with me….” Ace wasn’t surprised by this in the slightest, Perona was known for being a bitch, especially to her brother.

When the bell rang, Ace headed to his locker and prepared for AP French. He walked to the lockers with Sabo, as they walked, they chatted. “So hey, what was up with your text last night?” Sabo asked “Ugh.” Ace began. “The new police chief, he’s hot as fuck.” Sabo thought about this for a small moment before responding. “Hey man, just be careful okay. If he knew the kind of shit you do, he might hate you man….” Ace knew that, he knew being in a prominent gang could be a deal breaker on this man, but all he could do was hope and try. This man might not even want anything to do with Ace, but still Ace was determined to shoot his shot.

Ace’s AP French double passed in the flick of an eye. He moved on to his math period. At the end of math however, when he normally would have moved to English, an announcement was called over the speaker. The announcement summoned every student to the gymnasium for a school assembly. 

Ace met up with Marco and the gang in the quad as they crossed it to reach the gym. They sat together in the bleachers and whispered about what this assembly could possibly be about. After a short while, a strange man appeared on stage. He announced himself as the new principal. Ace stared at Marco, he looked just as shocked as Ace. What was going on? If Marco didn’t know about this, then something was definitely wrong. 

Marco was furiously tapping on his phone, the rest of the assembly was filled with curiosity and whispering, right up until Akainu announced his war on gangs. The whole school quietened as they stared at this stranger, who had the gall to come here and declare war on something he knew nothing about. For some of the kids here, the gangs were the only family they had ever had. And for some it was the only way they could even go to school. If Ace hadn’t been taken in by the Whitebeard gang, he and Luffy might not have half the things they did, which wasn’t much anyway, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, that the Whitebeards were Ace’s only real support system and without them, his whole family would deteriorate.

As the classes began to pour out of the double doored exit, Marco was summoned away by principal Akainu. Ace stood close by, to listen, just in case something happened. “Mr. Phoenix, it’s come to my attention that your car is parked in my spot. If it is not moved in the next five minutes, I’ll have that ancient abomination towed. Do we have an understanding?” At this Marco gave Akainu a dumb look. “I don’t know what you mean sir, my car is in the student parking. Just check and you’ll see.” Akainu looked pissed at Marco’s display of blatant disrespect. He tapped on his phone quickly, before his eye twitched and he looked up at Marco, rage burning in his eyes. “Very well Mr. Phoenix and I better not find it there, ever.” Akainu growled before walking away. “Yessir.” Marco muttered sarcastically, giving a mock salute and a middle finger to the principles back.

“How the hell’d you manage that?” Ace asked, curious as to how Marco moved the car. “I messaged Jozu while he was still on stage.” Marco answered with a wink. After the assembly, Ace made his way to the nurses office for his medication. There he ran into Trafalgar Law, he had no clue what he was doing there but he seemed to be picking up a pill of his own. “Hey gorgeous. Got anything special for me?” He asked, to announce his presence to the much older woman. Dr. Kureha rolled her eyes. “Yeah, a swift kick in the pants. Now sit on the damn table.” It was Ace’s turn to roll his eyes. “Not sure why I even bother taking these, I still fall asleep everywhere like a jackass.” He said in reference to the pills for his narcolepsy. “Well maybe,” Kureha began. “If you got the decent meds and drank less coffee, that wouldn’t happen.” Ace put on a face of mock offence. “How dare you suggest I give up coffee. Coffee is my lifeline, if i could be installed with a coffee IV, I would.” Kureha sighed and shook her head. “Alright, get lost brat.” She dismissed Ace and he left to eat in the cafeteria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was pretty long, hope you enjoy it ;)


	3. Chapter three-Cora-Racism and robberies were NOT what I had planned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a long wait, hey tell me if I should make this first person instead of third.

Cora sighed as he dropped Law and Bepo off at the office. He drove off and made his way to the police station. When he pulled in and parked the car, he took a deep breath, trying to dismiss his anxiety. He walked into the station and was met by a magenta haired woman. “Hey kid, you must be Trafalgar. Nice to meetcha, I’m Bellemere.” Cora smiled at the cheerful officer. “Yep, thats me, just call me Roci, it’s easier.” Cora rubbed his neck as he said this. She smiled again and another woman, this time with short dark hair, stumbled into the main area. “Are you Mr. Trafalgar?” She stuttered out. Cora nodded and she held out her hand. “I’m Tashigi, it's a pleasure to meet you. The chief wants to see you.” Cora nodded again and followed Tashigi to the chief’s office at the back of the station. 

When Cora entered the office, he saw a muscular, gray haired man hunched over a desk. On the desk he saw a pile of paperwork, a pen cup, a pack of cigarettes and a tall coffee cup. The man sat up and Cora could see that he was quite tall, not as tall as himself, but tall nonetheless. The Chief stood up, he stretched his back to repair it from his terrible posture and walked towards Cora. The chief outstretched his hand and introduced himself. “I’m chief Chase Smoker. What I say goes. Understand _Donquixote?”_ Cora was absolutely appalled at the gall of this man. How dare he _threaten_ him, exposing his true last name as if it were something he was proud of. Cora couldn’t let this slide. “I’m sorry chief, but I have absolutely _no clue_ what you’re talking about.” Cora smiled smugly. “My last name is Trafalgar.” At this, Smokers brow furrowed with rage. “Cut the shit Donquixote, I know exactly who you are and who your _brother_ is.” 

Cora was pissed. “You seem to misunderstand chief.” He began as he towered over the other man by a good foot. “I came here to _escape_ my brother and my last name.” Surprisingly, Smoker smiled at this. “That’s good to hear Trafalgar. I just needed to make sure.” Cora stood back, aghast that he had just been played by this man. “Well you had me convinced, you’re an incredible actor.” The men laughed for a while before Cora was shown to his desk where he would be spending the most time. 

  
  


A while later, around midday, Tashigi came tripping into the main area and towards Smokers office. A little while later a yell was heard from Smokers office. The aforementioned man stormed out of his office and stood at Cora’s desk. “Trafalgar, we have a dinner with the mayor to welcome us to the town. It starts at five.” Cora internally cringed at this, at breakfast that morning, he and the boys had made plans to eat at Foxfire, a sushi restaurant in town. “What about my boys?” He asked, hoping that he wouldn’t have to leave them behind and let them down. “Just bring them as yours and mine’s plus ones” Smoker sighed. “Seriously, how do they expect us to have partners yet? We just bloody moved.” At this point, Bellemere came up and swung her arm around Smokers shoulder. “It’s more of a courtesy, just in case y’know.” She said affectionately. 

As this was happening, Cora received a text from Bepo, informing him that Law would be staying after school for half an hour. Cora’s heart filled with shock and awe. “DID HE JOIN A CLUB???” Cora replied in all capitals. His hope was crushed although, as soon as Bepo replied; “No, he got detention in Spanish.” Cora’s heart sunk as his mind swirled through the possibilities. ‘Did he have a panic attack? Did he freak out?’ These thoughts swirled in his mind and were reflected on his face. Bellemere seemed to have noticed this and moved from her spot beside Smoker and lent down over his desk. “What’s with the sour look man?” she asked kindly. “Law got a detention.” Bellemere whistled slowly at this. “Well I wouldn’t worry too much, they call you if it’s really bad. He probably had a mean teacher who got pissed at him for talking in class.” Somehow Cora didn’t think this was the case, it just didn’t seem very Law-like. 

He continued working, thoughts eating away at the back of his mind. He left work at three, driving back to the school where he had been just a few hours prior. He parked directly outside the office and made his way inside to try and figure out what law had done. He stepped up to the front desk, he recognised the secretary from somewhere but he couldn’t figure out where. “Hi.” He began, to claim the attention of the bored looking secretary. “My son, Law Trafalgar is in detention, I was wondering if I could talk to the teacher who put him there?” The secretary rolled her eyes and clacked away. “The detention was given by Miss Viola.” She explained. She then pressed a button in front of a microphone and called over the loudspeaker. “Could Miss Viola come to the front office please? Miss Viola to the front office. Thank you.” She then left her desk and directed Cora to the detention room. “He has 

  
  


Cora opened the door and Saw Law, slouched over a desk reading. Cora was not happy about this entire situation. “We’ll deal with this at home Law. Now pack up, you have five minutes left.” A look came over Law’s face. “ HEY, YOU CAN’T BE MAD AT ME, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!” He yelled in response. Cora was confused at this accusation. He shook it off and left Law so he could go talk to Miss Viola. 

Miss Viola was a tall, slender woman.Her hair was long, dark and curly. Her legs were long and her feet were slipped into pointed kitten heels. “You must be Miss Viola, My name is Rocinante Trafalgar.” He introduced politely. “I’m here to talk to you about my son Law and the detention you gave him.” Miss Viola raised her eyebrow at this, as if in question. “No, don’t get me wrong, i'm not trying to defend him or anything, I just want to know what happened.” Miss Viola lowered her brow and smiled calmly. “We were reading in class and he continually became a disruption to the class.” This made no sense to Cora, Law wasn’t usually a disruption of any kind. “What was he doing?” Cora asked quietly. Miss Viola smiled again before answering. “He was laughing….” This shocked Cora beyond belief, until he remembered that Miss Viola was a Spanish teacher. Cora cringed outwardly. “What book were you reading?” He really didn’t want to know the answer. “The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote. Why?” Cora sighed and ran his hands through his hair as he groaned loudly. “WHY? WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE THAT BOOK?” Miss Viola looked concerned at Cora’s sudden outburst.

“Mr. Trafalgar! What ever seems to be the matter?” Cora groaned some more as he tried to figure out how he could possibly explain the terrible circumstances.He elected to just pull out his wallet and remove his driver's license to show her. She took his license from him and stared at the first name. ‘Rocinante.’ She attempted to hold in a chuckle but it ended up sounding more like a scoff. “Your name, is Rocinante?” Cora nodded solemnly and Miss Viola continued. “Like the horse?” Another nod. “This is what had Law in hysterics?” Cora sighed as he nodded a third time. Miss Viola sighed and shook her head. “Due to the circumstances, I will remove this from Law’s permanent record but please teach him some control.” She said while shaking her head. “Thank you so much for this.” He left Miss Viola with a handshake and returned to the detention room.

“I AM _GOING_ SLAM YOUR FACE INTO A FUCKING DESK!” Was the first thing Cora heard as he opened the detention room door. Cora stood there, staring at Law, absolutely appalled at what had just come out of his son’s mouth. Law noticed Cora standing there, he winced before asking; “How much of that did you hear?” Cora was absolutely _livid._ “Oh just THE PART WHERE YOU THREATENED TO SLAM A GIRL’S FACE INTO A DESK! What the hell Law?” Law sighed. “You don’t know the full story so _please_ just drop it.” Cora sighed and shook his head. They left the detention room and made their way to the front of the school through the office where they met Bepo. 

They drove home, talking about their days, aside from Law’s detention. They pulled into the driveway and entered the house. “Go get ready for dinner boys.” Cora called up the stairs. “Why? Firefox doesn’t open for another hour and a half.” It was only four o-clock and Firefox didn’t open until five thirty. Ora suddenly stalled, he had completely forgotten to tell the boys about the dinner with the mayor. “Um…. about that…. We’ve actually been invited to dinner with the mayor….” Cora could hear his sons groan in unison. “Do we have to wear suits?” Bepo asked from the top of the stairs. Cora thought about it for a moment. “I have to be in uniform so probably.” The boys groaned again and Cora laughed. 

The boys dressed and combed their hair. By four thirty they were on their way out the door and back to the car. They made their way to the restaurant, a fancy establishment called Baratie. They were ushered in by a woman, she was older than Law and Bepo but much younger than Cora. Her hair was dirty blond and her eyes were a steel gray. The table they were seated at was long, it had a velvet chair at the head. In Cora’s opinion, it was gaudy. All three boys sat in the middle, Smoker and Tashigi walked in a little while later and were seated a few seats down from Cora and the boys. Everyone looked like they absolutely didn’t want to be there. 

A young dark haired boy approached Smoker and Tashigi, he took their drink orders after a short session of gossip about the mayor. A blonde boy with a scar came up and introduced himself. “Hey, I’m Sabo, and I’ll be your server for tonight. Can I get you anything to drink?” The boys ordered their drinks and were left alone to talk with the other patrons at the table. Cora couldn’t help but wonder where the mayor was. Law was texting, Cora turned to Bepo, he was also texting. It appeared to be some kind of group chat. “So….” Cora began. “You guys make any friends today?” Bepo was considerably more conversational than Law, so he went into great detail about the friends he had made today. Their names were apparently Shachi and Penguin. They seemed nice, they were apparently incredibly friendly. Law however simply muttered about meeting someone named ‘Luffy’. From how Law described him, Luffy seemed like a nice cheerful kid, if not slightly annoying. 

Everyone enjoyed their drinks and conversations, talking amicably and enjoyed each other's company. The mayor arrived sometime during drinks, he swaggered to the large velvet chair and seated himself. Cora held back a grimace, he noticed the boys doing the same. Mayor Eneru had taken his shoes off and was rubbing his feet together like a fly. It was gross and entirely inappropriate for an establishment as high class as Beratie. The woman, who had ushered everyone inside, went up to the mayor. “Is there anything I can get you to drink?” the mayor chuckled. “Get me your finest whiskey please Little Bug.” He demanded sleazily, a perverse grin plastered to his face as he leaned in uncomfortably close to the poor woman.

Everyone at the table was visibly uncomfortable with mayor Eneru’s actions but they stayed quiet so as not to offend such a prominent figure in the town. Cora stared at the dinner menu. He wasn’t sure what to order, half the names weren’t even in English. Cora sighed as he silently wished he had taken French in school. There was an orange soup labeled _soupe a la citrouille._ If Cora remembered correctly, _citrouille_ meant pumpkin, so that was probably a safe bet. Law ordered something called _Stracciatella._ Another soup and one of the only italian dishes on the entire menu, there was no question as to why his adopted son had ordered this specific dish. Bepo kept it simple with the garlic butter baked salmon.

The mayor continued to make idle conversation with the fellow adults, completely ignoring the two minors sitting at the table. Not that they particularly seemed to mind, still tapping away at their phones and basically just minding their own business. That is until the mayor said something so horrible that everyone had to look up and stare in complete and utter disgust. “So those dirty little natives tried to attack me just because I “took their land~.”’ He quoted cockily in a demeaning tone. “I mean, I offered them jobs in the villa I built.” He continued, much to the disgust of everyone at the table. Smoker slammed his fist on the table in pure rage.

“So you’re the reason the station has had so many calls. Because you _stole_ that land. Of _course_ they’re mad.”After their meals were brought out. They ate peacefully, aside from the offensive and sometimes racist ramblings of mayor Eneru. By the time everyone was looking at their dessert menu, they were all holding their own conversations, which were ultimately interrupted when three masked intruders brandishing guns. 

“EVERYONE GET ON THE FUCKING FLOOR!” one of the intruders yelled across the room. The mayor however looked incredibly calm despite the whole situation. Smoker and Cora both made attempts to get up to handle the situation, the mayor waved them down. “Don’t worry.” Mayor Eneru began. “The entertainment has barely started.” And before anyone could say anything, four of the saff flew out and swiftly took down the armed assailants. One with pin straight blonde hair kicked a man perfectly in the chin, his leg held up perfectly straight with no effort. A dark haired waiter and the curly haired waiter from before tag-teamed one man, one going under the table and the other over. The last was quickly put in his place by the young lady who had seated them when this night had begun. Cora was in complete and utter awe at the speed at which this fiasco was handled. The offenders were promptly thrown out the door, much to Smokers chagrin. “You can’t expect me to just let those criminals go out the front door!” he burst out. Before Cora could concur with Smokers sentiment, a message appeared on his phone. It was from Bellemere. “Oh, Bellemere’s outside…” he mused out loud. It turns out that Bellemere had already been called to take care of the troublesome intruders.

After this outburst, Smoker walked out the front doors, muttering something about needing a cigarette. After a short while, Smoker was followed by Law. Cora was confused by this but chose not to question it. After some time had passed, they both re-entered, followed by a new addition of the young dark haired waiter who had been in the previous fight. After Law had re-seated himself, the group did their best to forget the previous intrusion and focused on ordering dessert. The quicker they ordered dessert, the quicker this night would be over.

Everyone ordered simple desserts and they were brought out post haste. Everyone ate rapidly, while also sparing time to chat idly with the waiters. Some were complementing the food and some were making simple small talk. Cora however chose to hone his hearing inn onto the conversation that Smoker was having with the young, dark haired waiter. 

“Kid, you can’t just drop a bomb on me like that and expect me to brush it off like nothing.” Smoker whispered to the waiter. “I just wanted to be completely honest with you.” The waiter whispered back.the continued on like this for a good few minutes, until the waiter was called away to return to the kitchen. After the dinner ended, Cora, Law and Bepo, left the restaurant and headed to their car. On the way there, Cora overheard Smoker conversing with the three waiters and the usher. At this point, Cora was far too tired to be bothered eavesdropping. The family of three piled into the car and made their way home. 

When they arrived home at around nine-thirty, Law and Bepo hurried off straight to bed while Cora made the decision to stay up and work on his laptop. He sat there typing away for a good few hours, until a _Skype_ notification popped up in the corner of the screen. It read, ‘Joker would like to send you a message. Accept?’ Cora went ice cold. His hands went numb and blood roared through his ears. His breathing was both too hard and too shallow at the same time. Cora knew exactly who was messaging him and he struggled internally. This man, who Cora and his family had run so far and fought too hard to escape from. Could Cora really just give him an opening into their life all over again? 

Before Cora could overthink and melt his brain trying to figure out every inch of the logic behind this entire scenario, he had moved the cursor over the agree button and left clicked. As soon as he had done that, before he even had time to regret his decision, the message from ‘Joker’ appeared on the screen. “Hello little brother.” Cora gulped audibly, this was really happening. “You ran so far to leave me behind, yet you so readily let me back into your life. Did you miss me?” Cora shook the panic from his head. He couldn’t let this affect him. That would be the same as letting him win. “Not particularly.” Cora responded in kind. “I was oh-so quiet before, how long did it take for you to notice I was even gone?” If there was one thing Cora knew, was that this was a game made for two people. Him and his ‘brother’. It wasn’t long before ‘Joker responded. “It wasn’t you I noticed per-say, more like what you took _with_ you.” Cora’s anxiety welled up again. He knew exactly what ‘Joker’ was talking about. It was sleeping in its bed upstairs. Cora growled lowly in his throat. “There’s no way you will ever get Law back in your dirty clutches.” He responded heatedly. He had risked far too much to get that poor boy away from that psychopath’s clutches and he would risk even more to keep him safe.

‘Joker’ didn’t respond for a while so Cora decided to take the initiative. “Can I expect a visit from you any time in the near future?” Cora crossed his fingers in hope that the other man would bite and he would get a response. And sure enough, a message popped up on the screen. “Not as far as I know, little brother. I’ll keep you updated.” And with that, ‘Joker’ went offline. Cora sighed, finally able to relax again. He closed his laptop and left the couch to go to bed. But even as he lay there, tucked up in his nice warm bed, thoughts of his brother continued to plague his mind. Thoughts of the atrocities he’d witnessed and committed in his brother’s name. The families he had torn apart. The children he had permanently scarred, both physically and psychologically. Cora would like to think that saving Bepo and Law’s lives would be repentance enough for his crimes against humanity, but deep down he knew that he could never take his actions back and the families affected would always remember what they had suffered through. And nothing except a time machine could ever change that. 

Eventually, as it was nearing the wee hours of the morning, Cora slept, his past actions plaguing his nightmares eternally. He awoke at six, as tired as he had been when he fell asleep. Nonetheless he rose from the comfort of his bed and dragged himself down the hall to wake the two younger men in the house. After all, it was only Tuesday. With how much had happened just yesterday, Cora felt as though a whole week had passed. But alas, he still had to go to work and the boys still had to go to school, much to their chagrin Cora soon learned as they groaned and turned away from the light as it was switched on.

“Cora, five more minutes please….” Law moaned out in a half-asleep slur. Cora rolled his eyes at the teen. “No you can’t have five more minutes and yes I am a dick. Now get up.” Cora called out as he left down the hall, rolling his eyes once again at the elongated groan of disappointment that came from Law’s room. ‘Typical teenagers.” He thought to himself as he reminisced on his own teen years. He was, however, pulled from his memories by a loud thump that came from directly above him…. Right where Law’s room was. Cora ran up the stairs, tripping as he did, but when he finally made it back to Law’s room where he had only recently departed, he saw his adopted son pulling himself up from the floor. Law’s arms were wobbling under the weight of Law’s body and he was shaking his head, as if to dispel something. 

Cora was panicked. He immediately rushed to Law’s side. “Are you okay?” he asked slowly, ensuring that the younger male could accurately understand him. Law took a deep breath before responding. “Yeah….” He began. “Yeah, I'm okay.” He pulled himself the rest of the way onto his feet and let the dizziness subside for a moment. Before he even had a chance to move again, however, Cora pressed his hand against Law’s forehead. “Are you sure? You don’t feel sick or anything?” Cora pressed, that is, until Law pushed his hand away and waved him off with an; “I’m fine, I’m fine.” Cora frowned, that boy…. Nonetheless he followed Law downstairs and continued getting ready for the day ahead, all while keeping a close, watchful eye on Law. On the entire way to the school, Cora pressured Law. “If you feel sick, go straight to the nurses office. Got it?” He repeated over and over again, which may explain why Law almost launched himself out of the car when they pulled up to the school. Cora watched for a while, as his sons interacted with their friends and classmates joyfully. ‘They’ll be fine.’ he thought to himself. That is until Law was tackled to the ground by a short student with messy dark hair hidden under a straw hat. Cora cringed to himself before continuing in his train of thought. ‘I hope…’ 

He arrived at the police station after having left the school and much to his surprise, the dark haired waiter from last night was walking in with a cup of coffee and a brown paper bag. And as Cora was walking in, he saw the dark haired boy leaving the chief’s office, sans the cup of coffee and brown paper bag, but plus a very flustered, red looking face. Cora raised an eyebrow but shook it off nonetheless. He had more important things to worry about. 

  
Cora knocked twice on the chief’s door, he heard the rustle of papers before hearing a gruff; “Come in” from the other side. He stepped inside and the first thing he noticed was the steaming coffee cup sitting on his desk. It was the same brand as yesterday’s but obviously more fresh, the brown paper bag was sitting beside it and the ashtray on the other side of the desk was overflowing with cigarette butts. Cora stood directly opposite the chief and uttered one single sentence. “ _He_ contacted me last night.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> be kind in the comments please. :{)


	4. Chapter four-Law-I just wanted sushi

Law was up in his room, sitting on his bed, pouting. He was absolutely not looking forward to some cushy welcome dinner with the mayor. He stared at the suit in complete and utter disdain. All day he had been looking forward to eating sushi with his family, But, alas. Here he was, suiting up for some stupid dinner with the mayor for Cora’s work. He tied his tie in a simple windsor knot, it was messy but acceptable. He stepped downstairs, a comb in hand as he pulled it through his hair. Law stopped in the hall to look in the mirror near the door. He looked eerily like his biological father. He shook those dark thoughts from his head and continued out the door, following Cora and Bepo to the car. They drove for approximately fifteen minutes before they pulled up outside the restaurant, it looked like a place you would find on the Avenue Champs-Elysees in Paris.

As they entered the building, they were ushered in by a young woman. Law took a seat at the table, he sat between Cora and Bepo and immediately pulled out his phone. He complained via text about this entire thing, Bepo concurred with how stupid this entire situation was. Shachi and Penguin offered their sympathies and gave some advice on ways to deal with the mayor. Apparently race was something that should be avoided at all costs. Law rolled his eyes. ‘Great….’ He thought to himself. ‘I’m probably going to be called a “wog” tonight.’ He chuckled to himself as he sent that exact thought through to the group chat. Law was quite pleased with himself when the three other parties of the chat responded positively to his idea of humor. 

He and Bepo shared in _excruciating_ detail, the exact design of the gaudy velvet chair at the head of the table, Law was almost tempted to send a photo but decided against it when Cora started to make attempts at conversation. Law groaned internally. He answered Cora’s questions in short, terse answers. If Law had to deal with this, so did Cora. Law couldn’t help but let his thoughts drift to Luffy, the way the dark haired boy would smile and laugh as if there wasn’t a single thing wrong in the world. Luffy seemed pure, like unfiltered sunlight on a warm spring day. Luffy’s smile reminded him of a field full of wildflowers, untamed and resilient. His smile seemed like it could last through anything, much like how wildflowers can grow in the cracks of concrete. 

Law was pulled from his beautiful thoughts by the curly, blonde haired waiter asking him if he knew what he would like to order. Law panicked, his eyes scanned downward through the menus, searching for anything that was even remotely familiar. His eyes blurred through the copious amounts of french, past fillet mignon, coq au vin and blanquette de veau. He scanned faster and faster, his mouth drying as he struggled to find what he wanted. His eyes flew over the menu, over and over and over. Then they stopped, he saw a familiar word, something he hadn’t seen since he was a small child. Stracciatella. It was an Italian soup made from broth, cheese and egg. Stracciatella was a staple meal among his family in Flevance. Law instantly informed the waiter of his decision and let out a relaxed sigh. He quickly went back to his phone to await his food. 

Law sat there, tapping away nonchalantly on his phone. He paid no attention to anyone at the table, that is until he, and seemingly everyone else was startled by a loud slamming sound. Law looked towards the sound, it seemed that an officer a few seats down had slammed his fist against the table. It was the new chief of police, chief Smoker, if Law remembered correctly. Smoker yelled powerfully in the direction of the mayor, something to the extent of; “So you’re the reason the station has had so many calls. Because you _stole_ that land. Of _course_ they’re mad.” Law struggled to hold eye contact with anyone at the table and it seemed like Bepo and Cora were struggling similarly. It was awkward, to say the least. It seemed to Law, that no one wanted to be there anymore, if they ever did to begin with.

  
  


Despite the nigh constant, albeit racist, ramblings of the mayor, dinner continued in peace. Law ate his stracciatella quietly, enjoying the nostalgia of his childhood meal. His heart nearly jumped out his throat at the sound of the front doors being slammed open and hitting the walls behind them. He looked around frantically, searching for the source of the commotion. He found it in three masked men brandishing semi automatic weapons. Law was terrified. 

“EVERYONE GET ON THE FUCKING FLOOR.” One of the masked men yelled across the dining room. Law felt almost compelled to do so. Before he could make any attempts to move however, the staff, who had served them just moments prior, sprung into action. Flipping across the table. It was a blur through Law’s eyes, the constant motion, changing before he could truly process it. And before he knew what was really happening around him, the three men had been disarmed and were being thrown out the doors they had slammed open seemingly seconds ago. 

It took Law a few moments to snap back into the reality of what had just occurred. He heard Smoker, yelling at the mayor again. He heard the mayor respond calmly. As Law was regaining awareness, he heard Smoker say something about going out for a cigarette. Law realised how breathless he felt and decided to follow him outside.

As he stepped outside, he heard Smoker talking to someone. “Hey, aren’t you too young to be smoking?” Law heard Smoker huff out. “Ah, ah.” The unknown other person started. “Just too young to buy them.” The conversation continued like this for a short while, Law finally called up the courage to look around the corner to see the other party of the conversation. As he peeked around, Law realised that he recognised the unknown party. It was the gaudily dressed senior that he had seen after the assembly earlier that day and now he was a waiter for the current dinner. Suddenly something else piqued Law’s attention.   
  
Yeah, I’m the second division commander of the Whitebeards. I’d show you but I don’t want to wrinkle my shirt y’know.” The senior/waiter chuckled out. Law almost gasped, the Whitebeards were possibly the most notorious gang in Goa. The humorous chuckle from the senior was quickly off put by Smoker’s yell of rage. “So what Ace? Has everything you’ve done so far been a ruse? A plot to get closer to me, for that stupid, FUCKING GANG?” Law watched as the senior or _Ace,_ as he was called, stepped back in abject horror at being yelled at by the significantly taller and more muscular man.   
  
“NO-no” Ace began. “I just really like you, and I wanted to be completely honest so please Chase. Give me a little bit of leash…” Smoker sighed, long and exaggerated. “Ok,” He began. “But as soon as I catch you in anything illegal, you’re gone. Remember that.” Law felt completely uncomfortable, he was about to turn around and head back inside, pretend he didn’t see a single thing. That was until he heard Ace speak in his direction. “I know you’re there. I’m not mad, just come out.” Law swallowed and stepped into the light. 

“Ah, the Trafalgar kid. Law wasn’t it?” Law nodded and Ace chuckled. “No need to be shy, my brother, Luffy, likes you. So that’s enough for me.” Law was in shock. “Wait, Luffy! Is he a Whitebeard too? Was he trying to recruit me? Is that why he’s so nice?” At this, Ace laughed hysterically. “God no, I told Luffy, if he ever joins a gang, I’ll kill him.” A look of realisation came over Ace’s face. He turned to Smoker. “For legal reasons, that’s a joke.” Smoker just chuckled. “I gathered that.” Law breathed a sigh of relief. So Luffy was just that genuinely kind and cheerful. 

The three of them walked back into the dining hall. Cora gave Law a look of questioning but law brushed it off with no acknowledgment. The group ordered simple desserts and finished quickly. As they left, Law noticed Smoker talking to Ace, the girl who had ushered everyone into the dining hall and a blonde waiter with mid length, curly hair. And another boy, who Law recognised from Luffy’s friend group. 

Law, Bepo and Cora all went home. Law climbed the stairs and fell into bed, he didn’t even bother removing his tie, let alone the rest of his suit. Today had been _excessively_ long. Between it being his first day at a new school, the detention and the whole experience at the restaurant. Law was exhausted and completely _done_ with the day.

Law slept like a rock, he didn’t even dream. Law liked this kind of sleep, it was the only kind of sleep that left him feeling refreshed. He wasn’t plagued by horrific nightmares, visions of death and guns and war. Watching the people he loved fall to the ground and bleed out. All the while begging for help and asking one, simple question. Why? Why was this happening? Why was it them? So many questions summed up into one single word. A word that had haunted Law since he was ten years old. That word followed him his whole life, coupled with the overpowering, metallic scent of blood and the screams of the innocent. His classmates, His _friends._ His teacher. His parents and worst of all, his little sister. Law never heard Lami scream, never heard her beg for her big brother. He didn’t need to, he could imagine it. How terrified she must have been, locked away in a closet. Hearing the thump of heavy, boot covered, feet and the fire of automatic weaponry.

When Law awoke, he was groggy. His eyes were filled with gunk, it made it difficult to see. Law scraped the gunk out, taking caution not to scratch his eyes with his fingernails. Law sat up, suddenly realising he was still in last night’s suit. He groaned and rubbed the sleep away, pushing his hands up his face and through his hair. Law recoiled in disgust, it felt like someone had poured cooking oil through his hair while he slept. He stood up and leaned himself against his doorframe, attempting to avoid another fiasco like yesterday. As his spotty vision cleared and the dizziness subsided, he pushed himself off and made his way to the bathroom for a shower.

By the time Law had showered, dressed and made his way down stairs, it was around nine o-clock in the morning and he could hear Bepo and Cora conversing over the kitchen table. They were laughing, it was soothing for Law. The domesticity of the image filled his heart with joy, it reminded him of a time so long ago. Law sat down, a smile printed on his face as he prepared himself a bowl of cereal. Law laughed as Cora apologised for his lack of cooking abilities. Law didn’t mind that Cora was clumsy or that he couldn’t cook without burning something. Cora was family and that’s all that mattered to Law. 

After Law finished breakfast, he made his bed, cleaned his room and did his laundry. After his weekend jobs were finished, Law had the rest of Saturday to himself. Law flopped on the couch, by this point it was eleven-thirty. Law turned on his _Xbox,_ his favourite game was ready to be loaded. _Gears of war 5_ , although violent, Law found it was an amazing way to blow off an insane amount of bottled rage. 

Law played for a while, yelling and cussing at the game’s inhuman enemies. By the time Law took a break it was one o-clock, he left the couch and prepared the fixings for a sandwich. He also decided to fix one for Bepo too. After both sandwiches were plated, he climbed the stairs, took a left and entered the computer office. He found Bepo clicking away rapidly on the keyboard. He was playing some game with magic and dragons, Law tapped on his shoulder and Bepo called to the other players through his headset, saying he was going _A.F.K,_ if Law was right that meant ‘away from keyboard.’ 

Law and Bepo sat together in the small office, eating their lunch and laughing about anything. After they had finished their lunches, Bepo returned to the computer and continued his game. Law watched for a few minutes before becoming bored with the slow paced, thought filled gaming. He descended the stairs with both plates, washed them and left them on a rack to dry.

Law returned to his game and played non-stop until Cora told him to get ready to go to the sushi restaurant. Law was ecstatic, he’d wanted to eat at Foxfire since they’d gone past it on the drive to their new house. They pulled into the parking lot just outside the establishment, they hurried into the restaurant and stepped up to the host. 

“Hello.” Cora began with a wave. “I have a reservation for a private room under the name Trafalgar.” The woman at the front desk nodded kindly, a smile turned her lips upward. She clicked away at her keyboard, she found what she was looking for and smiled again before speaking. “Right this way please, Mr. Trafalgar.” She gestured with her hands down a long hallway with multiple doors on either side. They followed her down the hall and stepped into the room she opened for them. Each of them situated themselves on the cushions surrounding the chabudai. Law looked at the menu thoughtfully, occasionally _Googling_ some of the items to be sure of exactly what he was ordering. Ultimately they settled on a share plate of makizushi, a share plate of nigiri and individual plates and gunkan maki.

They were delightfully surprised when their food was delivered to them by a beautiful, well decked out, geisha. “Hello honored guests.” The geisha began. “My name is Izo and I will be your server today.” Cora looked thoughtful for a moment before he spoke towards the geisha. “Izo huh? From what I know, that’s quite a masculine name in Japan.” Izo smiled for a moment before they spoke again. “That, Mr. Trafalgar, would be because I _am_ a boy.” Everyone at the table was surprised at this declaration. “A male geisha…” Cora trailed off as he processed this. “And so decorated too. At such a young age.” Izo smiled again, almost coyly. “I’m fully licensed, I swear.” Izo looked proud of himself at this statement. 

Cora left the conversation after this and Izo left the room, moving with grace and elegance despite the length of the heavily decorated kimono. They ate slowly, stopping often for casual conversation. Law found himself a lot more talkative now then he was at dinner last night. The group laughed and joked for hours, snacking on the plates of food laid out before them. By the time the group had finished, it was three more plates and two hours later. They were stuffed and sleepy but they made it hope with no issues. The laughing and joking continued to the living room where they sat on the couch, the gas heater warming the house while they warmed each other's hearts. 

Sunday passed by uneventfully and before Law knew it, it was Monday. He woke up at seven and repeated his process for every morning since today and what would be his process for every day to come. He sat up, stretched and stood up. As usual, he was plagued by dizziness and spotty vision. He waited for it to pass and continued to dress and descend the stairs. He ate the same cereal he had for the past four days and left with his bag to go to school. Bepo left around ten minutes after him. 

At school, Law went straight to his locker. Hoping Luffy would be there. Law was in luck today. He walked up to his locker and saw Luffy leaning against the one next to it. Luffy was laughing with his friends, smiling, the way he always did. Luffy’s smile stretched across the bottom of his face and the pure joy behind it made his dark eyes glow like black star sapphires. Luffy’s joy was contagious. The moment Law came into Luffy’s general vicinity, the joy spread to him like a disease. It filled his heart and healed all of his problems.   
  


“Hey Luffy…” Law said as he smiled shyly. Luffy looked ecstatic to see Law. “Torao, you’re here.” The way Luffy smiled at Law made him feel special. “I heard you met my brothers last night. Y’know, Ace and Sabo.” Law looked at Luffy quizzically, Ace he knew but Law couldn’t seem to recall meeting anyone named Sabo. Luffy seemed to have noticed Law’s odd look. “They were waiters last night. Remember?” Suddenly it hit Law, exactly who Sabo was. “Does Sabo have blonde, curly hair?” Luffy nodded enthusiastically. “Yep, that’s him.” Luffy laughed with a joy only available to him. Law thought this new information over for a bit. “Hey, I know that Ace is a Whitebeard son, but where’d Sabo learn to fight like that?” Luffy chuckled at this question before responding. “He’s in this thing called the Revolutionary Army. That’s where he learned to fight. That and him and Ace were famous street thugs as kids.” Law felt thrown through a loop. “Hold on, isn’t the Revolutionary Army a terrorist organization?” Luffy thought this question over for a while before he responded. “Well… Let’s just say, _I_ don’t think so.” Law understood what Luffy meant entirely. The extra emphasis on the ‘I’ signalled to Law that Luffy completely supported this group’s efforts, even though he might not be able to admit it aloud. This was most likely to avoid an impromptu trip to the new headmasters office.

Law didn’t blame his fellow peers for wanting to avoid principal Akainu like the plague. That man looked terrifying. His powerful stature and his booming voice was frightening. Law prayed that he never had to see him closer than he did at the assembly. Law grabbed his folder and books for his double english period and silently rejoiced as he watched Luffy do the same. The bell rang and Law and Luffy left for class, Luffy’s laughs echoed across the halls, even above the noise of the busy halls full of students heading to their own classes. 

Law’s heart filled with even more joy when Luffy sat next to him. As the class continued, Law became aware that Luffy struggled intensely with English. Specifically the reading portions. He stuttered over most of the longer words. Law couldn’t tell if the rest of the class was laughing _at_ or _with_ Luffy, so he stayed quiet. Once again, he and Luffy got in trouble for talking to often, but thankfully Mr. Jabra was more forgiving than Miss Viola, so luckily they didn’t receive another detention. 

The bell for recess rang and Luffy turned to look at Law. “Hey…” Luffy trailed off as he thought about what to say. “Do you want to, maybe, bring your friends and sit at our table.?” Law was absolutely thrilled at Luffy’s invitation. Sure enough, Law informed his friends and brother of the new seating arrangement. Shachi and Penguin looked at Law in complete shock and awe, this confused Law, their shock was soon explained by Shachi. “Duuude~” Shachi drew out. “Luffy and his group nevvver~ invite others to join. They’re, like, super exclusive and tight.” This was strange to Law. Luffy had been open and inviting from the get-go, from the first day, Luffy had accepted Law as a friend and been exceptionally kind. According to Ace, that’s just how Luffy was.

Nonetheless, Law, Bepo, penguin and Shachi made their way into the cafeteria, regardless of whether or not they brought bagged lunches, Luffy’s group always sat at a specific table in the direct center of the cafeteria. When they sat down, Law was reintroduced to Luffy’s friends, he did his best to commit them to memory. 

Nami was the girl with short red hair, her mom worked with Cora and her girlfriend’s name was Vivi. Ussop was an African-American boy with a long nose and a penchant for lies. Zoro had green hair and a short temper when it came to Sanji, the boy with pin-straight blonde hair, Law recognised him from the restaurant a few nights ago. Chopper was a short, mousy boy who had been pulled up a few grades so was understandably younger than the rest. His foster grandmother was apparently the school nurse; Dr. Kureha. 

Bepo, Shachi and Penguin introduced themselves and whispered to Law about how surprised they were at how kind this group was. Law got the consensus that Luffy and his friends were an enigma of sorts, something that everyone knew _about_ but no one really _knew._ The, now unified, group flourished merrily, enjoying eachothers company and each other's food, Luffy didn’t seem to know how to keep his hands to himself.

Recess was short, but _ever_ so sweet according to Law. The group laughed and smiled together for that amazing half hour as they snacked and joked. Law felt entirely blessed when Luffy invited them back for lunch.

Law was not surprised in the least when he turned up to biology and Luffy was nowhere to be seen. Something told him that Luffy didn’t quite have the brain or patience for AP biology. This was a class that Law had greatly anticipated, ever since he’d chosen it as an elective. Unfortunately, Law couldn’t fully enjoy the class, he was unnerved by his teacher. Mr. Caesar was… odd, and that was putting it mildly. He was an eccentric man who was passionate about what he was teaching. Though, sometimes, he would slip and show a side that was a little less acceptable when teaching a class full of high school freshmen. 

Somehow, Law made it through bio with few incidents, next though was a class that Law had been dreading ever since he’d been informed that it was compulsory. Gym. Law hated gym, every single part of it. Running around like an idiot, sweating like a pig. Even changing in a massive group was awkward. Nonetheless however, Law still went to class, still changed in that disgusting _Axe body spray_ scented group. However, he _was_ thrown through a loop when Luffy’s name was called but there was no joyful yell of; “Here!” In Luffy’s distinct voice. Law shrugged it off and made it through class with as minimal participation as possible.

Law was thrown through a second loop when the bell rang and Luffy appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “Hey Torao, you coming?” Law had no clue exactly where Luffy had gotten that nickname. Law nodded his response and jogged to catch up with Luffy who had already started to walk off.

Law couldn’t focus all through lunch, his thoughts and eyes stuck on Luffy who was seated across from him, the way he laughed and smiled. The way he was so comfortable wherever he was and whoever he was with. Luffy lit up the room, not as if he were under a spotlight but almost as if he _was_ the spotlight. All attention was drawn to him whenever he spoke. He spoke simply, no fancy words, no metaphors and yet his words still held weight. By no means were his words profound in any way but they were honest and meaningful. And to Law that honesty was worth more than any metaphor. 

Suddenly, something happened and Law almost jumped out of his skin. A bang sounded through the packed cafeteria, everyone looked towards the direction of the noise. Law was appalled to see Ace, surrounded by friends, with his face completely pressed into the table, as if he were unconscious. That seemed to be proven true when the pineapple haired boy from friday stood on the table and began to make an announcement. “Fellow cafeteria patrons.” He called out across the room to garner everyone’s attention. “It’s time for everyone’s _favourite_ game; ‘Is it sleep deprivation or narcolepsy?’ Please place your bets.” This shocked Law, he didn’t know whether it was the fact that Ace had narcolepsy or the fact that people were actually betting on a serious neurological disorder. Law didn’t have time to process any of this really though, because almost as soon as it had begun, it ended. “Ok everyone. Betting is now closed.” When the boy on the table announced this, there was a chorus of groans. “Alright, let's find out the results.” At this proclamation the entire cafeteria, including Luffy and his friends, started drumming on the tables. The boy lifted Ace’s head up by his hair and grinned. “The results are in… It’s…. NARCOLEPSY.” A chorus of groans sounded through the cafeteria and the ‘announcer’ laughed menacingly. “Winners, come get your cut. Loser, get lost.” Law saw a boy with a pompadour handing out cash to the winners and pulling faces at the losers. All in all it was a truly odd experience. 

Curiosity got the better of him and Law couldn’t help but ask. “Hey Luffy,” The boy looked at him. “Who’s that guy standing on the table?” Luffy laughed, the way he always did. “That’s Marco, he’s Ace’s best friend.” Law processed that for a second. “Ok, who’s the guy with the pompadour?” “Oh, he’s Thatch, he’s cool.” And no more was said on the subject. 

After lunch, as they were walking towards their lockers to prepare for their classes, Law finally mustered the courage to ask Luffy about gym class. “Hey Luffy, where were you in gym today?” Law’s heart pounded against his chest as Luffy looked at him, Luffy chuckled his signature chuckle before replying. “I skipped. Wanna try?” Law could only nod slowly, not that it mattered because he was already being pulled away from his locker by Luffy’s calloused, powerful hand against his wrist,


	5. Chapter five-Ace-Remember, Carnal Knowledge Is A Life Sentence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus guys, gals and all my non binary pals, I'm honestly sorry, I feel as if you're watching the same thing happen over and over again from different camera angles. Luckily, this should be the last chapter about the restaurant.

Ace never made it to the cafeteria for lunch that day, he was pulled aside by Marigold and Sandersonia. As soon as Ace saw them approaching him, he knew exactly what was about to happen. “Our sister wants to see you.” Marigold announced. “Yeah so be grateful, male scum.” Sandersonia followed. Ace rolled his eyes at the girl’s man hating ways, but didn’t dare to vocalize his thoughts for fear that he would get beaten to a pulp by the many girls in the Kuja gang. Instead, Ace followed them quietly, to the girls bathrooms no less. It was there that he saw her; the envy of every girl and the object of lust of every straight man in the school. Boa Hancock.

Boa was a tall slim woman and a senior like himself. Her hair was long, dark and pin-straight. It lacked any signs of heat damage and not a single strand was ever out of place. The only issue with the Kuja gang was their ‘fem-nazi’ man-hating ways. Ace didn’t know what caused it and honestly, he didn’t really care enough to find out. Ace was one of the only men Boa dared to associate with, and that’s only because he was openly gay, it was very apparent that Boa didn’t see him as a threat. Not as a man at least.

Ace stood there, across the bathroom. All the stalls were empty and the bathroom was eerily quiet. Boa stood there, she shifted her hair out of her face and tapped her kitten heel, it was the only height she could get away with at school. “So, I hope you understand why you’re here?” Boa began expectantly. Ace nodded. “Yep, homecoming right?” Boa nodded in response. “I’ll send you a picture of my dress so you can pick a suit to match.” And that was that. Ace left the bathrooms and left to prepare for his next class. 

As with every first day of school, the last class went by at a morbidly slow pace. Ace’s eyes watched the second hand on the clock, as if it were a countdown to freedom. Sometimes he would sigh and tilt his head backwards and stare at the upside down room behind him, but ultimately, he always returned to staring at that slow paced clock. He felt himself jittering with anticipation when he watched it reach three-twenty-nine. He counted down in his head; ‘Ten , nine, eight.’ And so-on, until, right on time, that ever elusive bell rang through the classrooms and halls and the cafeteria. Before the bell had even finished its thirty second performance, the halls were packed with students, all eager to head home for the weekend. Ace too followed the rushed herd of students to his locker, where he collected his insane amount of homework, Insane considering it was only the first day and he already had three assignments due by the end of the month. 

He was just heading to Marco’s car to go home when he was summoned again. This time by one of Luffy’s friends, the one with green hair, Zoro if he remembered correctly. “Hey, Sanji wants to see you in the cooking room.” He said lazily before turning and leaving. Ace had somewhat of a clue as to what this was about so he turned on his heels and left for the cooking room, sending a text to Marco, telling him not to wait up.   
  


When he arrived in the cooking room, he found Sanji sitting callously on one of the stools, one of his long legs bent so that its ankle was resting on the other’s thigh. Ace cleared his throat to garner the others attention. This act shocked Sanji and he was up and standing almost instantly, hands awkwardly placed at his sides as if he didn’t know quite where to place them. Ace chuckled quietly to himself. “Hey man, if this is about the other night at that party, don’t stress it. I won’t tell anyone and I seriously doubt that Marco cares enough to be bothered telling anybody.” Sanji ran his hand through his hand with an exasperated groan. “Like, I know that but, y’know, I’m not like, gay or anything ok.” Ace sniggered at this claim in his head but didn’t voice this so as not to offend the other man, instead, he settled for a simple nod.

  
  


“That isn’t what I called you here for anyway.” This slightly shocked Ace but he didn’t show it, he just let the other finish what he was saying. “There’s this big, fancy dinner at the restaurant tonight and I was wondering if you’d be open for waitering? I’ll pay you of course.” Ace thought it over for a second before answering. “Sure… Do you mind if I bring a few extra hands?” Sanji smiled, apparently happy to talk about anything other than the previous topic. “Sure, it’ll be great actually. Most of our waiters quit recently.” Ace was overjoyed at this. He could work with Sabo and get _paid_ for it. Now he had to think of who else to bring… Then it hit him, Sabo had a girlfriend, Koala.

Koala was a nice college girl, at least to the public eye. Behind the scenes she was a hardcore martial artist and major player in the revolutionary army. She fit the bill to a ‘T’. As Ace left the cooking room, Ace pulled out his old, incredibly dated, flip phone. He dialled in Sabo’s number, knowing it off-by-heart at this point, and let it ring until Sabo answered. “Cancel all plans bro, we’ve got a job tonight. Oh and bring Koala too.” He called through the phone before Sabo could say anything. “Hey Sabo. How are you? I’m good Ace. How are you?” Sabo said mockingly. “That's how normal phone calls start.” Sabo continued, being completely humorous.

“Yeah, yeah.” Ace vocally waved off flippantly. “Anyway. Clear your schedule and bring yourself and Koala to Baratie. We have a job.” He could almost hear Sabo rolling his eyes through the phone. “Alright, alright.” Sabo agreed. “What time?” Ace fought hard through his memory for the time Sanji had told him to arrive… “Sanji wants us there by five.” he answered eventually. Sabo made a sound of understanding and hung up. 

Ace made his way to the restaurant, albeit slowly, he had time to kill. When he arrived at Baratie, he was geared up with a simple tuxedo and some dress shoes. The tux was more plain than Ace would have preferred but he couldn’t argue against a pay cheque, so he suited up in the back room and when he emerged, he was greeted by the sight of Sabo and Sanji struggling to move an extravagant, velvet chair from one end of the dining room to the other. 

“What’s the deal with this chair?” Ace asked, coming up between the two to help lift the chair from the middle. “Ugghhh.” Sanji groaned before continuing. “The fucking Mayor ‘requested’ we have this specific chair brought in. Mind you, he also ‘requested’ that the carpet smell _exactly_ like he wanted. The _carpet!_ Can you believe this bullshit?” Ace simply chuckled as he helped lower the chair back to the floor. He’d heard of Mayor Eneru’s antics and constantly found himself disgusted by them. Between the blatant racism and the illegal drug smuggling to satisfy his own greed, Ace found that he absolutely couldn’t stand the man. 

The group moved back to the kitchen where Sanji went back to work with his adopted father, Zeff and continued preparing sauces, soups and desserts. After a short while, Koala made her way to the kitchen, fully dressed in her own waiting attire and was immediately fawned upon by Sanji, he was soon brushed off and she came to speak to Ace and Sabo until guests started pouring in.

The first guest that Ace noticed was someone from Marco’s slideshow that morning. Rocinante Trafalgar. After Mr. Trafalgar followed his two sons whom Ace had seen around the school that day, Law and Bepo if he remembered correctly. After those three, the real star of Ace’s show arrived, Chase Smoker, in all his uniformed glory. Ace swooned at the way his hair had been messily pushed back, as if he’d hurriedly slathered his hand in gel and combed his fingers through it. Ace stared at the way his muscles stretched his shirt to its limit, to the point that it looked as though the buttons would pop off any minute now. Ace was living for that image.

As soon as Smoker and Tashigi were seated, Ace approached them, small notebook in hand, to take their drink orders. “Is there anything I can get you two to drink tonight?” He asked amicably, leaning in closer than necessary. Tashigi looked over the drink menu for a moment before ordering a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. Ace noted her order and pulled away to look at Chase expectantly. “And anything for you _sir?”_ Chase rolled his eyes at Ace’s politeness. “So do you work here all the time or…?” He asked. Ace laughed soulfully at this. “No, no. I’m just here for the night. Anyway, would you like a drink?” He explained. Chase didn’t even bother looking at the drink menu. “Just get me a glass of your best scotch. I’m gonna need it to survive this farce.” Ace Chuckled. “Yeah, from what I’ve heard, Mayor Eneru is an absolute bastard.” He shared and his heart warmed when Chase laughed. After this Ace moved away and left to prepare the noted drinks. He stepped into the kitchen where Sanji and Zeff were still preparing things and headed to the wine cellar for Tashigi’s wine. He found the one he wanted but soon realized that he had no clue where the scotch was kept.

Ace stepped back into the kitchen and walked over to Sanji. “Hey where do you guys keep the scotch?” Sanji yelled at Zeff to watch the soup he was preparing and stepped away from the stove to lead Ace to a wooden cabinet, well away from any stoves or ovens. “What kind did they want?” He asked after opening the cabinet. “The best you have.” Ace answered and Sanji reached up to the top shelf and pulled out a bottle labeled _Lagvulin._ “This is the best we got.” Sanji said as he handed the bottle to Ace and returned to his station. 

Ace pulled out a glass and filled it with an ice ball fresh from the freezer. After both drinks had been poured, he returned to the dining room and placed them before their respective patrons. Smoker took a sip of his scotch and made a pleased face. “Damn!” He exclaimed in pleasant surprise. “I know I asked for the best, but holy shit, this is good.” Ace found his heart warming at the thought that he had done something to make Smoker happy. He smiled sweetly and returned to the kitchen to give everyone some time to enjoy their drinks. They didn’t seem to be able to enjoy them for long however, because a short while later, the Mayor strutted to his seat. After the Mayor had seated himself in the afore-mentioned, pre ‘requested’ chair, he _took off his shoes_. Ace, who was watching from the small, round windows in the kitchen door, cringed in disgust at this unhygienic action. He watched as Koala approached him and offered to serve him a drink. She noted down his order and moved swiftly to the kitchen, an annoyed look plastered on her face. “God he’s a pretentious ass!” She declared as soon as the kitchen doors had closed behind her. Everyone in the kitchen simply laughed at how obvious the statement was. The waiters took turns going out and taking meal orders from the table. Ace if course laid claim to Smoker and Tashigi’s table. Smoker ordered a medium rare ribeye steak and Tashigi ordered ravioli carbonara.

From the kitchen, Ace clearly heard Smoker yelling at the Mayor, admonishing him for his blatant racism. Ace couldn’t help but swoon slightly at that. Soon though, his swooning had to end, as the ordered meals were prepared and ready to be served. Ace took the two plates in hand and carried them to their respective guests. No sooner than the meals were brought out, was the meal interrupted again, this time by small time hoodlums brandishing guns bigger than their egos, if that were possible. Ace rolled his eyes at the untimely disturbance and turned to Sanji. He was about to tell him to call the police, but as soon as he turned around, he realized that he already was. So instead, Ace turned to Sabo and grinned and Sabo grinned in response. It was time to kick some ass.

  
  


The three waiters burst out the kitchen door and tag teamed the intruders in no time flat. And as soon as the fight was over, Ace and Sabo held great pleasure in throwing them out the front door. Ace was almost frightened at the speed at which Chase stood up, disbelief written clear on his face at the criminals being thrown straight out the door. Ace was about to intervene when officer Trafalgar spoke up, phone in hand. “Oh Bellemere’s outside.” This seemed to appease Smoker to some extent but he still seemed slightly wound up as he muttered about going outside for a smoke. 

“This is your chance, horny bastard.” Sanji said from behind him. Ace gave him a quizzical look at being called a “horny bastard.” Sabo and Koala laughed at his obliviousness. “Dude…” Sabo began while stifling a laugh. “You’ve been pretty much fawning over him all night.” Ace blushed all the way down his neck, much to everyone else’s amusement. “So go out there and talk to him dumbass.” Ace nodded and almost immediately, he was being fawned over. Koala was fixing his hair, Sabo was fixing his clothes and Sanji, god bless, was shoving a cigarette between his fingers. After the three were finished preening him, Ace stepped out the side door of the kitchen and saw Smoker standing there, puffing away at his own cigarette and it apparently wasn’t his first, judging by the amount of scuffed out butts littered on the ground directly below his feet. 

“Got a light?” Ace asked, wiggling the cigarette between his fingers to draw Smokers attention to it. Smoker gave him a quizzical look. “Aren’t you too young to be smoking?” He asked as he lit it anyway. Ace laughed. “Ah-ah, only too young to buy them.” He responded in a sing-song voice. Smoker scoffed. “God that Mayor really is a fucking dick.” Smoker complained and Ace nodded in agreement. “Like, how does he get away with saying this shit?” Smoker continued, his voice filled with appall and disbelief. Ace shrugged in response this time. “Hey, where'd you learn to fight like that?” Smoker asked, curiosity getting the better of him. Ace had dreaded this question. How was he supposed to tell the chief of police that he was a commander in the most infamous gang in the city? Ace gulped as he tried to think of what Makino would tell him to do. ‘Honesty’s the best policy Ace.’ Her voice rang through his head and Ace realized, if he wanted to get anywhere with this man, he had to bite the metaphorical bullet. 

“I’m the second division commander for the Whitebeards.” Ace revealed with an uncomfortable chuckle. Ace felt panic run through his veins like lightning when Smoker started yelling aggressively. “So what Ace? Has everything you’ve done so far been a ruse? A plot to get closer to me, for that stupid, FUCKING GANG?” ‘Oh God.” Ace thought as he stepped backwards in shock. ‘Abort ABORT!” He needed to fix this. And fast. “NO-no” He began. “I just really like you, and I wanted to be completely honest so please Chase. Give me a little bit of leash…” Smoker sighed, long and exaggerated. “Ok,” He began. “But as soon as I catch you in anything illegal, you’re gone. Remember that.” and Ace felt his heart fill something akin to joy, mixed with a small amount of pride.

OUt of the corner of his eye, Ace saw someone move, He recognised it as Law Trafalgar, Officer Trafalgar’s adopted son. Ace chuckled as he noticed the younger boy try to hide. “I know you’re there.” Ace called out. “I’m not mad, just come out.” Ace held back a chuckle as he watched the young boy step sheepishly into the light. “Ah, the Trafalgar kid. Law wasn’t it?” Law nodded and Ace chuckled. “No need to be shy, my brother, Luffy, likes you. So that’s enough for me.” Ace said with a smile and he watched panic fall over the kid’s face. 

“Wait, Luffy! Is he a Whitebeard too? Was he trying to recruit me? Is that why he’s so nice?”Law queried. At this, Ace laughed hysterically. “God no, I told Luffy, if he ever joins a gang, I’ll kill him.” Ace saw Law’s eyes flick to the police officer behind him and fully comprehended that he may have just confessed to pre-meditated murder. Ace turned to look at Smoker. “For legal reasons, that’s a joke.” He explained and much to Ace’s delight, Smoker chuckled. “I gathered that.” He said with a calm smile. Ace realized that the cigarette he had been gifted had long since gone out, so he threw it on the ground and walked back inside with the other two men. 

The Mayor was still rambling about his racist views and ideologies, to no one’s surprise. The patrons all ordered quick, simple desserts, seemingly eager to end this night as quickly as possible. Ace didn’t blame them in the slightest. Between the hold up and the Mayor’s antics, this night had gone on far too long. The group ate quickly, picked up their belongings and filed out the doorway. Ace, Sabo and Koala stood in the kitchen while Zeff counted up their payment for the night, Zeff was just finishing, when Sanji burst through the door, shock written across his face. “All the cops left like, a hundred dollar tip. _Each_ .” The three reeled back in disbelief. Sure, they’d heard that the Mayor wasn’t good with tips, but three or so hundred dollars _each_ was slightly excessive. As they were handed their pay packets, Ace watched as Koala stuffed hers down her blouse, between her breasts and couldn’t help but feel envious of her extra storage space. Before he could think anymore about anything, Sabo’s pay packet was being shoved into his hands. Ace looked at Sabo, puzzled as to what he was doing. Sabo seemed to pick up on his confusion however because he soon explained. “For Luffy.” He declared as he pushed it further into Ace’s hold. Ace, while trying to push the envelope away, argued fiercely. “It’s fine. You _earned_ that.” To this, Sabo rolled his eyes. “Ace, you stubborn bastard, just take the money. Heaven knows I don’t need it.” And Ace could no longer argue. He shoved both his and Sabo’s envelopes into his green backpack, all while grumbling about ‘pushy assholes.’

The group left the restaurant, only to see Smoker standing there, puffing away on another cigarette as he leaned against his police cruiser. Ace and the others walked up to him, originally to thank him for the generous tip he left behind, but before they could utter a single word, Smoker started talking. “I’m giving you guys a lift.” he declared in a ‘no nonsense’ type of voice. Ace was the first to speak up. “It’s fine, we can walk.” He argued but it held no weight once Koala intervened. “Speak for yourself.” She began. “My feet are killing me in these heels. There is no way in _hell_ I am walking home.” Ace rolled her eyes at the feminie stereotype she portrayed but nonetheless, followed after her into the cruiser, Sabo following behind him. 

As the two boys sat in the back, Sabo shot Ace a dirty look. “My parents always said I’d end up in the back of a cruiser with you and look, they were right for once.” After that little play, they both laughed hysterically, right up until Smoker pulled into Koala’s college where he watched to ensure that she made it to her dorm safely. While they were parked, Ace gave Sabo a sly grin, as a mischievous and possibly evil idea came into his head. “Hey Sabo~” Ace began coyly. “Wanna really scare your parents?” And Sabo grinned back, Always keen to terrify or annoy his pathetic excuses for parents. Ace explained the plan and Sabo’s grin only grew. 

The plan was; Ace was going to sit in the front seat, pretending to be handcuffed and ashamed of himself and Sabo would do the same in the back. It was the perfect way to send Sabo’s parents into panic mode. Soon the plan was in place and they were pulling into Sabo’s gated community. Smoker pressed on the speaker, only to receive a very rude and very tired, “What?” from the other end. Whoever it was seemed to have realised their mistake however because they quickly apologised to the ‘lovely officer’ and let him in. Ace couldn’t help but mumble; “Kiss ass.” Under his breath. As Smoker parked in the driveway and left his seat to let Sabo out of the back, a man and woman, dressed only in their dressing gowns, bustled outside in a panicked rush. They both looked back and forth between Sabo, Ace and Smoker, fear growing ever present on their ugly faces. “Officer…” Mr. Outlook, Sabo’s father, started. “I don’t know what my son has done.. But is there any way for me to make this whole thing disappear?” He asked as he rubbed his thumb against his two fingers, a lecherous grin plastered onto his already disgusting face. “Yeah,” The wife chimed in. “It was probably all that filthy heathens fault anyway.” 

Smoker stepped back, he was blatantly disgusted and appalled with Mr. and Mrs. Outlook’s actions and accusations.However, he soon recovered from his shock and stepped forward to tower over Mr. Outlook. The man in question gulped audibly as he stared up at the significantly larger man. “Mr. Outlook.” Smoker began, his voice shaking with the amount of unbridled rage that was flowing through him at that moment. “You don’t seriously expect to _bribe_ an officer of the law. Do you? Much less the chief of the Goa police force?” Mr. Outlook made an attempt to step backwards, out of Smoker’s threatening glare, but unfortunately for him, there was no escape. Smoker continued to tower over him, his glaring burning holes straight through Mr. Outlook’s eyes. “Because if you were.” Smoker continued, this time poking at Mr. Outlook’s chest. “I’d have to drag _you_ down to the station, because that, Mr. Outlook, is a federal offence.” At this, Mr. Outlook seemed to shrink. “And another thing.” Smoker started again, barely giving himself time to breath. “Maybe don’t jump to conclusions. Your son is in no trouble _whatsoever._ I was just giving both of these _lovely_ young men a ride home. Now, if you don’t want to get yourselves in even more trouble, may I suggest that you all go inside and have a great night.” And with that said and done, Smoker returned to his care to watch Mr. and Mrs. Outlook sheepishly hurry into their home, Sabo trailing slowly behind them and when he turned around to wave goodbye, both Smoker and Ace were bathed in the warmth of his enormous grin.

Smoker said goodbye to Ace rather quickly that night, Ace chalked it up to how tired he was. All the same though, as Ace lay in bed, with Luffy curled up across the room, he couldn’t help but reminisce on last night. Specifically Smoker. The way he would laugh and his whole body would shake. The way he rolled his eyes so dramatically. It was all so perfect in Ace’s opinion. Smoker was perfect, in Ace’s opinion. 


	6. Chapter six-Cora-Some People Have a Family Tree, Mine's a Cactus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people have a family tree, mine's a cactus. Full of pricks

Ever since the night after the dinner at Baratie, Cora hadn’t heard from his maniacal brother. Most people may see this as a good thing, Cora however, did not. It was never good when Doflamingo ceased contact, it only meant that he was plotting something, and when dealing with a man as insane as Doflamingo, that was never a good thing. 

After Smoker had been informed of what had happened, Cora was instructed to keep him updated. That would have been easier to do however, if there actually were any updates. Cora wanted to tell Law and Bepo, he  _ really  _ did but he just couldn’t. The boys were finally settling in, making friends and having fun. Cora Cora couldn’t bring himself to destroy that peace that was so fresh. Peace was something these boy’s hadn’t had very often, so now, living in an okay town with an okay budget and going to an okay school. It was just that, okay. 

Cora strolled into work on Monday, a smile on his face. He and the boy’s had had a calm weekend of playing video games and watching movies. For once, Law had seemed genuinely excited to do something that involved people besides Cora and Bepo. Law had woken up that morning with a smile and he’d left for school with a smile. After Law had left, ten minutes early no less, Cora leaned over to Bepo and ask

ed; “What’s this about?” Bepo explained that this was probably the work of the ‘Monkey D. Luffy’ that Law had mentioned on Friday. Cora didn’t really know all that much about the kid but he was glad that someone was accepting his son and making him feel welcome.

He saw Bepo off to school around ten minutes after Law left and got himself ready to go to work. He pulled into the same parking lot as last week and headed inside, successfully dropping his paperwork everywhere as he did. Bellemere laughed as she helped him up and helped collect his paperwork. They spoke gleefully as they walked to the coffee pot and Bellemere poured them both drinks, to “Save his hands.” As she’d put it.    
  
Both parties went back to their respective desks, mugs of disgusting coffee in hand. Cora did his work for a while, going out on patrol every third hour. For a Monday morning, there was a surprising amount of public drinkers and prostitutes. All of whom were directed onto the back of his wagon and taken to the station to await bail. Other than that, everything was fine, that is until he received a call from the school. Cora panicked as he remembered what Bellemere had told him last week. “ _ They call you if it’s really bad.”  _ As his hands shook, Cora answered the phone. 

“Hello. This is Rocinante Trafalgar.” He declared expectantly, hoping he wouldn’t hear any bad news. “Ah good.” The male voice on the other end of the line began. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but your son, Law, has gotten himself in even more trouble than on Friday.” Cora’s eyes went wide as he played out all the possibilities in his head. All the things that Law could have gotten in trouble for. Fighting. That was the one that played through the most. Law had been surrounded by casual violence most of his life, so it wouldn’t surprise Cora if he had grown so accustomed to it, that it became his first resort. 

“What did he do this time?” Cora asked quietly as he anxiously anticipated the answer he would receive. “He got caught skipping class.” This announcement took Cora completely by surprise. Law loved school and he enjoyed his classes. So why would he skip them? Before Cora could open his mouth however, the unknown voice on the other end continued.

  
“He was caught skipping double math with one, Luffy .D. Monkey.” This made no sense to Cora. Law liked math, he was  _ good  _ at math. Why would he skip it? The whole thing just didn’t line up in Cora’s mind, first the detention, however unnecessary, and now this. The only common denominator he could link up, by any stretch of the imagination, was Luffy.

Do understand, Cora wanted to give this boy the benefit of the doubt, to not make assumptions. But alas, Luffy was the only link he could procure between the two incidents. He had made a mental note to discuss this with Law at a later date. But for now he had more important things to worry about.

After ending the call with the school, Cora rose from behind his desk and made his way toward Smokers office. Head in hand, he knocked on the door. “Come in.” A gruff voice called from behind. Cora entered and began to explain to Smoker what had happened, to which Smoker’s only response was- “Get your boy under control Trafalgar.” With that, Cora left and made his way to his car. Filled with immeasurable rage. 

He pulled into the school parking lot dangerously fast. The tires squealed and left black marks as he parked. The car door slammed and he marched up to the office doors. He swung them opeb and stormed to the reception. His hand slammed on the counter before he started speaking to the unenthused receptionist. ‘My son, Law Trafalgar, is in trouble. Where would I find him?” The receptionist pointed him in the direction of the principals office. There, he saw four men, one being Law himself and another being the tall dark haired waiter from the restaurant last Friday. The waiter was also looking incredibly unhappy as he stared down at a guilty looking boy seated next to Law, who Cora could only assume was Luffy. 

Cora took a seat next to his son and leaned close to his ear. He heard Law gulp in anxiety. “You…” Cora whispered angrily. “Are so dead when we get home.” Cora finished and he swore he could see the perspiration form on Law’s brow, if he wasn't so mad, he’d probably find it amusing. 

All four parties in the room turned as the sound of the door opening reverberated through the small room. A large, hulking man, that Cora could only assume was the principal. He seated himself in the large, red leather chair. Once he got a good look at his face, Cora’s eyes widened in shock. He stared at the nameplate sitting innocently on the desk. ‘Akainu,’ is what it read. Cora felt his heart constrict in fear at the realisation of who this man was. Suddenly it all made sense. He recognised the bland secretary in the office, he knew who this principal was. How had he never noticed any of this danger before?

The man seated in front of him was none other than the infamous Akainu Sakazuki, senior admiral of the United Government Forces and the staff directly around him were Cipher-Poll nine, a group of top tier agents directly under the control of the world government. The blood rushing through him became white-noise in his ears and his stomach started to swirl. Cora didn’t know why Sakazuki was her, but he knew it couldn’t be for anything good. 

Akainu began to speak. “At this school,” He began. “We take rule breaking quite seriously, and skipping class is quite a punishable offence.” Cora cringed at just how military he sounded, even while speaking to children. “But.” Akainu continued. “This appears to be their first  _ real  _ offence so punishment will be light.  _ This time. _ ” As soon as Cora heard that, he was thrilled, this might not stain the permanent record of these young idiots.

After much deliberation, the group of adults settled on a week's worth of after school detention. Half an hour after school from tomorrow until Friday and from nine am until four pm on Saturday. Cora knew though, that that was only the school punishment, the worst was yet to come at home. Cora was going to make absolutely sure that Law knew that too. 

Both boys were released early for today, Cora also heard Akainu speaking to Luffy’s “parent”. “Mr. Portgas.” Akainu said sternly. “You need to keep your brother under control better.” Brother, that made more sense in Cora’s mind than father. This ‘Portgas’ character didn't seem to be much older than Law and Luffy. 

‘Portgas,’ was dismissed and soon made himself scarce. However, he stopped outside of the office, directly in front of Cora. “I’m sorry for my little brother’s antics.” Portgas apologised sincerely. ‘ _ Little brother… _ ’ Cora thought to himself. ‘That makes more sense than  _ child _ .’ 

“It’s really not an issue.” Cora responded, heaven knows that Law could do a lot worse than what Luffy had done. The boy chuckled as he rubbed his hand behind his neck. “My name’s Ace, I remember you from the police dinner.” Cora extended his hand for a handshake which Ace reciprocated. “Name’s Rocinante.” Cora introduced upon realising he hadn’t. “Pleasure to meet you officer.” Ace responded, a boyish, hypnotic smile plastered on his face with closed eyes.

Cora turned his head to the side and saw Law, he was laughing and chuckling along with Luffy to whatever the other boy was passionately exclaiming. Luffy’s hands were being thrown in the air dramatically and his mouth spoke, yet somehow, he remained smiling. For just a second, Cora forgot that he was mad. Only a second though. When Ace walked over and dragged the boy away, grumbling about how much trouble Luffy was about to be in, Cora was snapped back to the present and he too dragged his rebellious son to the car. 

As they sat in the car, Cora gripped his steering wheel so tight, his knuckles turned white and his face began to turn red. He turned to the sheepish fifteen year old in the back seat. “WHAT IS YOUR ISSUE?” He yelled out of sheer fury. “FIRST IT’S DISRUPTING CLASS, NOW YOU’RE SKIPPING IT. WHAT’S NEXT? FIGHTING?” Law took a breath, most likely to steel himself. “WELL SORRY FOR WANTING TO BE A NORMAL TEEN FOR ONCE IN MY CURSED FUCKING LIFE.” Cora sat there, shock plastered on his face. He sighed and released his death grip on the steering wheel. “Fine.” He began. “But you’re still grounded.” Law groaned and threw his head back in dismay and irritation. “Calm down.” Cora said, stifling chuckles at how dramatic his son could be. “It’s only for a week.” 

The duo drove home in a comfortable silence. When they arrived however, Law went straight to his room and Cora elected to flop onto the couch and extend his legs onto the coffee table, something he constantly told his sons off for. Cora was dozing slightly, eyes closed, mind at ease, or as at ease as he could get. This bubble of calm popped quickly however when his laptop dinged with a notification from  _ Skype _ . Cora knew who it was, there were only so many possibilities. He opened the laptop lid cautiously, afraid of what he might see. Relief and hope seemed to have abandoned him in that moment however, when he saw the notification and the address of the sender. Joker. That’s all the ID said and Cora felt despair wrap itself. He hadn’t heard from Joker since that Friday and was hoping to never hear from him again. However, Cora knew there was no way he could ever be that lucky. 

Before the anxiety could grip him more, Cora decided to bite the metaphorical bullet and open the mysterious message. Before his eyes could focus on the contents themselves, Cora automatically knew it was short and praised god for it. Hopefully a short message would be a little less damaging. He didn’t hold high hopes for it though. 

His eyes focused and the first thing he read Was, “Hello little brother. “ Cora’s eyes scanned the page. He saw details of his day, what time he left for work, what time he clocked in, when Law skipped class. Every detail terrified him, yet at the same time, he wasn’t surprised. Cora knew his brother was dangerous, everyone knew that. But Cora was the only one who could truly comprehend just how smart the other man really was.

The fact that himself and his family, his  _ teenage  _ sons were being watched every second of every day filled Cora with terror. Cora checked his watch, it read two-thirty or thereabouts. Smoker would be on patrol. He picked up his phone and sent through a text to the chief asking him to meet him in the park at three. Sure Bepo would be getting off school around that time, but he was a big boy now, he could walk home. But with the unsettling message Cora had received less than an hour ago.... Cora wasn’t so sure it was safe.

Cora steeled himself. He knew how Doffy played, knew his tactics. Cora knew that his brother wouldn’t try anything until he was completely sure he’d get away with it. Bepo would be fine, Doffy was too smart to abduct him in broad daylight. 

Cora grabbed his keys and yelled upstairs to Law that he was leaving for a moment. He grabbed his laptop and raced out the door, stumbling to his knees on the way out as he tripped on his own two feet. 

Cora made it to the park and saw Smoker looking into the distance while sitting on a dirty park bench. Cora approached him and pulled up the laptop. Smoker read the messages and his face contorted in concern. “This is bad…” The man muttered, mostly to himself. He trusted that Cora already knew the seriousness of the situation. The men sat there in total silence, unsure of what to do or what to say. There was no way that Cora could possibly be comforted in this situation, yet offering protection would be an insult to Cora’s ability to protect his own family. 

Smoker turned to him. “I’ll trust you to keep those boys if yours safe.” He announced while Cora nodded his head in solidarity. As he headed back home, Cora dreaded the conversation he was about to have with Law and Bepo. Now that it had come to this, the boys needed to know that danger may be lurking right outside their house windows. It was an unsettling thought, but the evidence was in the message. Doggy had listed every moment of the day himself and his family had just experienced.

Cora re-entered the house, this time he locked it, and went around shutting all the blinds on the first floor. He sat his laptop on the table and slid his hands along and under every surface in the house from the dining table to the inside of the cistern in the bathroom. Upon finding no listening devices or cameras, Cora breathed a small sigh of relief. He went back down stairs, calling to his sons about a family meeting in the dining room on the way there. He himself returned to the dining room first and sat down at one end of the table, laptop sat directly in front of him.

Bepo and Law soon came down the stairs as well, muttering and gossiping the entire way. Their anticipation was quickly stopped however, when they saw Cora, sitting at the end of the table, a solemn look on his face and his laptop, open in front of him. Law and Bepo gulped in unison and sat down. 

“Boy’s.” Cora began. “I need to tell you both about something. This has been eating away at me since last Friday.” Law’s and Bepo’s faces became more concerned as time went on without Cora revealing exactly what this meeting was  _ actually  _ about. Eventually however, Cora mustered the courage, after a lot of procrastination, to break the news. 

“Doffy has been messaging me, on and off, since last Friday. After the dinner.” Law and Bepo recoiled in shock and terror. The man that they had tried so vehemently to escape had already found them. In a place where they thought they were safe. They were not.

Bepo broke down, fat tears rolled down his porcelain skin and his eyes became puffy and red. Law followed suit. Although, whereas Bepo was crying violently, with hiccups and sobs, Law was quiet. He buried his head in his hands and all you could hear where the quiet, muffled, sniffles.

This whole scene was heart wrenching to Cora, he had expected a reaction of some sort, but never this. His boys were strong. Cora knew this. For them to break down into complete fear and misery, he knew they had to be terrified. 

Who could blame them either? Cora himself was terrified as well. Himself and these boys had all seen what Doflamingo could do. They had seen him murder, torture and Cora had even seen him rape people. Doffy was a fucked up man with no qualms about hurting and killing women and children in the most brutal ways imaginable. He would string them up on flag poles by their extremities for the whole world to see. Doffy’s whole method was; ‘Send a message.’ And send a message, he did. There were few people in the world who dained to cross the violent Doflamingo Donquixote. And for those who did, it never ended well. They soon became “messages” themselves. 

All that being said, it was no wonder that the three men at the table were scared out of their wits. The calmer of the two younger boys, Law soon became coherent enough to speak. “Are we going to need to move again?” He asked, eyes still puffy and face still wet and stained. Cora smiled at him calmly. “No boys, we will _ not  _ be moving again. We either go down fighting, or we win. Chief Smoker already knows what’s going on. No matter what, I  _ will _ keep you boys safe.” He said. ‘No matter what I have to do…’ He finished in un-vocalised thought. Cora knew from experience, the length these boys could go to. From a young age, they had witnessed the atrocities of horror and war. They had been trained to survive in a ‘survival of the fittest’ scenario. That was not something one could ever forget easily.

It took some time, but after himself and Law had managed to calm Bepo, Cora re-educated them on the safety procedures. “If I’m not here you lock the door.” Law and Bepo nodded. “The blinds stay shut at all times.” Another nod. “And please,  _ please;” _ Cora pleaded in emphasis. “Never leave the house alone.” The boys continued to nod in understanding. The seriousness of the entire situation, finally settling on their shoulders. Law and Bepo considered themselves lucky to have made such close friends on their first few days at school. 

The meeting ended at around eight-thirty at night, it was a long meeting, having started at five. Law and Bepo both elected to go to bed early tonight. Fear still coursing through their veins and rattling their minds. Cora however stayed up, thoughts whirling at lightspeed around his brain as he watched the laptop monitor in earnest. Waiting, waiting for something, anything to happen. And it did. Another  _ Skype _ message popped up on the screen. “Why did you close the blinds?” was all it said. Cora steadied himself, unwilling to let any fear or hesitation show. If he did, then Doffy won. “I don’t like my privacy being invaded.” Was all he responded with. 

After a small amount of time had passed, another message revealed itself. “Things that belong to me don’t deserve privacy. Especially when they misbehave. Ask the ungrateful one  **_all_ ** about that.” That message made Cora sick to his stomach. “Which one is ungrateful?” He queried. His heart already knowing the answer. “The  _ dead _ one.” Was the only response he got before ‘Joker’ logged off. 

Cora closed the Laptop and raced up the stairs to Law’s bedroom. His heart stopped when he saw the empty, unmade, bed. He settled his heart and continued down the hall. He stopped by Bepo’s room, the door open, just a little bit. Cora widened it slightly. His heart was put at ease as he saw both his boys cuddled together, squished against each other in the small single. Cora breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door again.

Afterwards, he returned downstairs and rechecked every door and window leading to the outside world. All were locked. He did the same upstairs, locking every window and shutting the blinds. He knew this would piss off his brother to the highest extent, but that was the point. Angry people make mistakes. All Cora needed was one mistake. In this waiting game, however, Cora knew he couldn’t be the first one to ‘blink’. 

Cora made his way to his own bed, after checking on his boys  _ one  _ more time. And as he lay there, dark thoughts of what to do, how to handle this coming storm. A storm with his face, a broken personality and an entire army of loyal followers. 

As sleeping took over his mind, he couldn’t seem to unshake the feeling of somebody watching him. Peering through the blocked windows and waiting for a chance to strike. When he awoke the next morning, the feeling followed Cora. from his bed, to the kitchen and out the door to drive his boys to school. The only solace Cora got was the private knowledge the Sakazuki and CP9 were there. Doffy might be insane, but he wasn’t stupid. He would never try anything with so many military personnel in the direct vicinity of his targets. The thought made Cora sick again. The idea that his precious sons were once again targets. After all the effort they had gone through to try to become safe. Would they ever be? 

With Sakazuki and CP9 there, a question niggled at Cora’s mind. Why? Why were they there? What did they want? Was it them? Sakazuki showed no real appeal in Cora or his sons so that diminished that possibility. They were there for something, and despite his own problems, Cora was determined to figure out what. 

Cora had never liked Sakazuki’s authoritarian, military style of doing things. In his opinion, Sakazuki was far too quick to launch into a fight. He never seemed to think of the possibility that someone could be stronger than him. And CP9 was no better. They were dogs. They did as they were told, when they were told and how they were told. Their orders were usually; “No man left alive.” If they were here as well… What could these dogs be hunting for?

Cora pulled into the police station employee parking lot, laptop and paperwork in hand. He made a bee-line for Smoker’s office. He needed to relay his findings. In all the chaos, he had forgotten to mention Sakazuki and CP9 in their meeting. 

He sat there, lit cigarette between his fingers. If Smoker complained, he was a fucking hypocrite. Smoker’s brow scrunched, as he was informed about Sakazuki and CP9 being undercover in a public highschool. “What do you think they’re there for?” He quizzed Cora.

Cora thought on it for a good while. Cigarette slowly burning away, unsmoked. No matter how hard he may try, he could never come to a good answer. There was nothing that seemed to fit and fill every hole perfectly. The gang violence? Why not just go in full bore? Why go undercover for that? Doflamingo? Why go to a highschool of all places? To keep an eye on Smoker? Once again. Why a highschool?

  
Nothing fit, nothing made sense, there was no reason that would explain why  _ Sakazuki, of _ all people, would go  _ undercover _ , in a  _ highschool _ of all places. Nothing was making sense, the pieces wouldn’t fit. There was only one solution that could cover all bases. It wasn’t possible, or maybe it was and Cora just didn’t want to admit it… “Gold Rodgers son…” Was all he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I haven't updated in like forever. lots of stuff going on. hopefully this sorta makes up for it. Don't be shy in the comments. <3 <3


	7. Chapter seven-Law-Teenage rebellion or something or rather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No body enjoys their teen years and rumors suck.

Law sat in the principal's office, a sheepish feeling washing over him as he watched the door, waiting for Cora to come through the door like a bull seeing red. It had all started earlier today. Luffy had pulled him along on his class skipping adventure. Law hadn’t minded one bit though.

The two boys had found themselves under the bleachers, flushed and panting from the speed they had ran here at. Luffy giggled as he sat back, leaning against one of the poles. Luffy’s eyes seemed far off and distant, as though the world was on his shoulders and the universe was pushing it down. Law didn’t focus on that for very long, mind you, he was far too enraptured by the way the small beams of light cast down onto Luffy and illuminated the honey tone of his skin, the shades of brown in his hair and the flecks of gold littering his eyes. 

They sat there for a while, not speaking, not laughing, just enjoying the company the other provided. It was sweet and calming. Law had noticed that Luffy seemed to have that ability. He could calm anyone with his presence alone and it was great. Luffy was exactly what Law needed in this moment. 

Eventually, Luffy spoke. “You see that senior over there, with the long hair?” He asked and Law looked, broken from his stupor by Luffy’s voice. He saw the senior in question, It was the one he had seen after the assembly last Friday, and at the dinner later that night. “Well, he’s my big brother.” Luffy continued and Law nodded as he remembered the conversation with Ace and Smoker last week. Luffy’s brother was a one man army in Law’s opinion and it had made him cautious to never cross either of them. Luffy didn’t seem like the kind of guy who was totally unforgiving, Ace however… Ace seemed like a ‘fool me once’ type of guy and was most certainly the brains between him and Luffy. 

The duo sat there for some time, enjoying each other's company and laughing carelessly. Law stared at the way Luffy’s eyes would glimmer and the way his honey tan would glow. In that moment, however brief, Luffy was the most beautiful person in existence. Law found, rather quickly, that Luffy was amazingly easy to please. Law, eventually, found the courage to question him about why that is. “Why did you trust me so quickly?” Law asked simply, almost stupidly. “Because I do…” Was all Luffy said in response, and for Law, that was enough. 

Things were going smoothly, almost perfectly, then Luffy fucked up _majorly._ He pulled out his phone and tapped around on it for a bit, that was fine, Law had been doing that for the past hour. The real issue came when Luffy pulled up the _Snapchat_ app and snapped a quick selfie of himself and Law. Before Law could stop him, Luffy had put it on his story, essentially sending it to the entire school. Law groaned, head in hands as he listened to the phones on the bleachers above them started dinging, one after the other. Suddenly Law’s vision tunnelled as he watched Ace open the pocket in his atrocious cargo shorts, he pulled out his phone, tapped a few times and his facial expression became that of pure rage and Law knew he was dead. Ace jogged over to the teacher and spoke to them for a mere moment before he marched to the bleachers and before Law knew what was happening, Luffy had been grabbed by his collar and so had Law. Law was terrified, detention for being a disruption was one thing but this was serious… 

A short time later, Law was certain that he was going to die, Cora was going to kill him and all he’d fought so hard for would be for nothing. ‘This is stupid.’ Law found himself thinking, as he sat in the small chairs in the principal's office. ‘I’ve seen people die, I’ve been through _way_ worse than this…’ As true as these thoughts may have been however, Law couldn’t seem to shake the impending sense of doom that seemed to linger around the office. Law could almost see the way it twisted and curled around the room, winding around Luffy’s signature straw-hat, it wound itself around Ace’s neck and faded when it reached principal Akainu’s hand. 

When Cora finally arrived, Law could automatically see just how, well and truly, _pissed,_ he was. Law really couldn’t blame Cora for being unenthused about being there, Law didn’t particularly want to be there either in all honesty. Cora took a seat next to Law, it looked comically small in comparison to the other man’s long frame, almost like sitting in a play seat. Law couldn’t distract himself with these thoughts for long however, because no sooner had they made their way into his brain, were they replaced. “You are so dead when we get home.” Was all Cora whispered. Law’s heart kicked into overdrive, his heart sending him into overdrive as he imagined all the possibilities of how he would die. Was it the Tachycardia? Was it the anxiety? He didn’t know. All Law knew was that his heart felt like it was about to leave his chest and sweat was pouring down his face and body. He turned to look at Luffy, he looked calm, as though this were an everyday occurrence for him. It just occurred to Law in that moment, that this very well may be the case for Luffy. It would come as no surprise to Law if he found out that the other teen was very much at home in a principal’s office.

Luffy’s entire manner had become standoffish and aggressive. He was leaned back, one foot on the principal’s desk, two chair legs off the ground. His arms were crossed against his chest and his eyes were narrowed, as if daring Akainu to challenge him. Law had never seen Luffy appear this way, it screamed danger and defiance. This Luffy was a polar opposite to the one Law had seen at the lunch tables, or under the bleachers. The Luffy from before was open, friendly and welcoming. This Luffy on the other hand was defensive, aggressive and ready to fight. Law couldn’t help but wonder; Which brother was more dangerous? The quiet, fiery, Ace? Or the loud, bipolar, Luffy? In Law’s opinion, it was far safer to know your enemy _was_ your enemy, than to foolishly believe they were your friend.

Law shook those thoughts from his head as soon as they arrived, surely that couldn’t be the case? Sweet, friendly, open Luffy. There was no way he could be faking that. Luffy attracted people, there was no way that was all for show. Luffy’s freakish law of attraction was what had possessed Law to follow him into this stupid, idiotic nonsense to begin with. There was **_absolutely_ **no way that was all a lie.

Eventually, through a lot of adult discussion, most of which Law tuned out in favor of staring at Luffy, it was decided that both offenders would do a five day detention starting tomorrow. Law despaired at the realisation that that would mean being at school on a _Saturday._ ‘There goes my weekend.’ He thought to himself dispiritedly. The only silver lining of the _entire_ situation was the promise of a little extra time with Luffy, everyday until Sunday.

After Akainu had dismissed them for the day, Law and Luffy made their way to the parking lot. “I’m gonna be so~ grounded.” Law groaned out after ensuring their distance from the adults. “I’m not.” Luffy declared, as though bragging to the ‘less fortunate. “Why not?” Law questioned incredulously. Luffy chuckled, the way he always did, mischievously, like a child keeping a secret. “Ace’s figured out by now that there’s no point. I’ll just escape when he goes to _work_ ” Luffy explained, air-quoting the word; “work”. Law knew the meaning behind that, it was when Ace would go out to do Whitebeard stuff. Whatever it may be. 

Law thought Luffy was so lucky. To still be able to be so carefree. To not have the world on his shoulders and nothing holding him back. It must have been lovely. Luffy had gone into some long winded story, something that involved Nami, Ussop, Zoro, Ussop’s girlfriend, Kaya and her butler. Law didn’t know all the details, drowning it out to continue staring at Luffy. His enrapturing eyes. His messy, dark hair. The way it would shift every time Luffy moved. Luffy’s perfect smile. Luffy’s soft, smooth-looking, strawberry pink lips. ‘What would they feel like against mine?’ Law thought, a goofy smile appearing on his face. When he realised what he was doing, it was too late, Luffy had caught him. “Hey Torao, You okay?” His voice oozing with concern. Law shook his head, dissipating those betraying thoughts and successfully clearing his face of the ridiculous look. 

  
Before Law even had a chance to respond, he was being pulled away from Luffy and back to his own car. He was being treated like a child at a play-date he thought bitterly. Before he got very far however, Luffy grabbed his hand and pushed something inside. To this day, Law will argue that he still remembers the warmth of Luffy’s hand, all the callouses and scars, every line forming a fingerprint that was uniquely Luffy. Cora didn’t stop though, he was too mad for that. He continued to pull Law all the way to their car, where he successfully threw him in the back seat. ‘Definitely being treated like a kid.’ Law thought cynically, as he buckled up his seatbelt. He watched as Cora sat himself in the driver’s seat. Law knew something bad was going to happen when Cora didn;t buckle his seatbelt instantly. He gulped in apprehension. Law watched as Cora death-gripped the steering wheel and his face became redder and redder. 

“WHAT IS YOUR ISSUE?” Law flinched at the sheer volume. “FIRST IT’S DISRUPTING CLASS, NOW YOU’RE SKIPPING IT. WHAT’S NEXT? FIGHTING?” Cora continued, much to Law’s chagrin. Law took a deep breath, his teeth gound together in pure irritation at Cora’s insensitivity. “WELL SORRY FOR WANTING TO BE A NORMAL TEEN FOR ONCE IN MY CURSED FUCKING LIFE.” Law himself was taken aback at this outburst. He should have known better. He shouldn’t have yelled. He shouldn’t have sworn. He’s in trouble. He’s in the wrong. This is _all_ his fault. It took everything in Law’s power not to cover his ears, to prepare for the punishment that was _sure_ to come. There’s no way it wouldn’t. Law was absolutely certain that he was about to be slapped, kicked, punched, something. _Something_ **_had_ **to come, Cora was far too mad to let this one go. So Law sat, tensed and waiting. But nothing came.

Law lifted his head in curiosity and saw Cora releasing his white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel. “Fine.” Was all Cora said, his voice calm. “But you’re still grounded.” He finished. Law let out a long dramatic groan, throwing his head back for exaggeration. He heard Cora chuckle and he knew that he was going to be okay. “Calm down.” Cora said between poorly stifled chuckles. “It’s only for a week.” ‘Well that’s something to rejoice in.’ Law thought to himself. By next Tuesday he’d be home free. They drove the rest of the way home in silence. As they pulled into the driveway, Law suddenly remembered about the thing Luffy had shoved in his hand as they were separated. Law unclenched his fist to see a crumpled receipt, he could vaguely make out some scribbled pen on the inside of the crumple. He sat there for a moment, flattening the paper and was surprised to find that it had Luffy’s _Snapchat_ account, his _Instagram_ account and his phone number. ‘When’d he have time to write all that?’ Law thought idly as he walked in the house, instinctively up the stairs and to his bedroom. He flopped heavily onto his bed and pulled out his phone. 

  
Law lay there, excitedly entering the details into their respective apps. The first thing he noticed, was how active Luffy was on social media. Every app Law went to, every time he tapped on Luffy’s profile, hundreds upon hundreds of posts and photos and followers would come up. Every profile had, at least, one thousand followers. From _Instagram_ , to _Snapchat,_ even _Twitter._ They were all jam-packed with posts and photos and captions, it was understandable why Law got completely lost in the technological maze. So it was completely understandable when Bepo arrived home a few hours later and Law hadn’t moved an inch from where he’d first flopped down. Law could hear Bepo dashing to Law’s room, He burst through the door, panting and covered in sweat, stammering against his exhaustion to get out the words he needed. 

“IS IT TRUE THAT YOU AND MONKEY .D. LUFFY WERE CAUGHT FUCKING UNDER THE BLEACHERS” Bepo screamed out, simultaneously shoving his phone into Law’s face. Law stared at it for a moment, realising that it was a poorly edited screenshot of the _Snapchat_ Luffy had sent out, the one that ended up becoming their demise. However, this version of it was cruelly graffitied. Homophobic slander was written across the screen and phallic imagery covered both boys faces. Law was stunned. Sure, he and Luffy had _skipped class_ under the bleachers, but how did _that_ become _this?_ That was what Law wanted to know. In blind panic, Law dove for his phone. Swiping through all the opened applications and profiles, all the way to the texting app. “Hey. You know anything about the snap of us going around?” He sent, using text talk simply to get the message out faster. Soon enough three small dots appeared at the bottom of the screen. They disappeared and returned over and over again until eventually… “Don’t know who sent it but I have people looking into it.” ‘So it wasn’t Luffy…’ Law was at least happy about that. He sat back on the bed and ran his hands through his hands with a groan as he tried to figure out who did this.

‘Ace? No, he’d never slander his own _brother_ like that.’ Such was Law’s thought process for a good half an hour. He even started thinking about simply going down the list of Luffy’s _Snapchat_ friends, but that would take forever. Luffy was far too popular for Law to do that. Plus he’d be travelling all across the world. It had to be someone closer to home. Someone who knew Luffy **and** Law. Who could possibly have such an issue with the both of them that they’d do something so drastic? Was it really both of them? Now that law thought about it again… Law quickly snatched the phone back from Bepo and took another, good, long look at the bastardised photo. He was right. None of the slander _or_ vulgar imagery was centered around Luffy at all. All of it, every single piece, was pointed towards Law. 

Law froze. Who would do this? Why would they do this? He hadn’t even been in town a week. That was definitely not enough time to piss someone off _this_ much. It made no sense. Why would anybody do this? Law wanted to cry. He wanted to curl up in a ball and never leave his room again. He couldn’t though, Law knew this. Running from whoever was doing this meant that they won. 

Law couldn’t help but wonder. What would Doflamingo do? It was sick, but amusing. Truth be told, if Doflamingo had handled this, whoever this was would have found themselves skinned alive before the day ended. It hit Law, that if he weren’t more careful, that could be him. He shook those thoughts and went back to the mystery at hand. Who had sent this?   
  
He messaged Shachi and Penguin. They knew far more people at this school, they could figure this out way easier. Between messaging Shachi, Penguin and Luffy, Law had failed to notice how much time was passing. It was five. Why hadn’t Cora announced dinner yet? Better question, why wasn’t dinner burning yet? Something felt wrong. 

As if on cue, Cora burst through the door. Law could hear Cora shuffling around, moving things around the house. He heard Cora call for them from the staircase. Law and Bepo looked at each other. They had both realised that something was very wrong. They walked down stairs together and found Cora at the table, laptop open in front of him. Law gulped as he visualised every possible thing that could be wrong. He watched, without listening, as Cora rambled. Procrastinating this discussion. It was scary, normally Cora was direct and to the point, but now he was anxious. Cora was fidgeting with everything. Law almost didn’t hear it when Cora finally revealed the reason behind the meeting. “Doffy’s been messaging me.” It was short, quick, so quick it was almost glossed over between Cora’s rambling. Law almost thought he’d misheard.

Cora turned the laptop around and reality set in. This was real. Everything they had all worked so hard to achieve was over. They were either moving, or dead. Bepo broke. He was sobbing and bawling. Law couldn’t watch, first the picture, now this. It was too much. Law buried his face in his hands and tears welled up in his eyes. Soft sobs spilled from his lips. He was shaking, he knew this but couldn’t seem to stop himself. 

Law took a deep breath. He needed to calm down, all this panic wouldn’t be good for his heart. He took another breath, lifted his head and looked at Cora. The pity on Cora’s face was blatant and nigh unbearable. “Are we going to need to move again?” Law asked, his voice croaky, head pounding and eyes stinging. Cora’s face hardened. “No boys, we will _not_ be moving again. We either go down fighting, or we win. Chief Smoker already knows what’s going on. No matter what, I _will_ keep you boys safe.” 

Cora’s resolve was inspiring to Law, this man had been through so much bullshit and somehow, somehow he still managed to stand up with a smile. Law turned to Bepo, he was still crying and sobbing, hiccups making his entire body move in shaky jumps. Law and Cora both moved to help him. Cora handed him a glass of water from the kitchen. Bepo drank it, with some difficulty through the hiccups. When he finished Cora took the time to reinforce the old safety rules; “Don’t go outside alone. Always lock the doors. Yadda yadda.” Law had heard it so often by now that he really didn’t need to listen to the speech so he just nodded whenever Cora’s mouth stopped moving. 

After Cora’s protective spiel, Law and Bepo climbed the stairs to bed. Law didn’t even realise that it was barely eight-thirty. Law crawled into his bed, clothes still on from the day before. He lay there, nerves wracked and thoughts racing. Law checked his phone, he hadn’t even thought of it for three hours. When his vision focused on the, over bright, screen, he was shocked to find message upon message littering his lockscreen. 

“Trafalgar_Law has been added to the ‘Straw hat’s’ group chat.” 

“From Luffy_=D - ‘We figured it out guys!!!’” 

“From Sogeking - ‘We did?’” 

“From Nam1 - ‘Who was it?’” 

“From Z0r0 - ‘Some guy named Barto’” 

“From Sogeking - ‘How’d you figure that out?’” 

“From Luffy - ‘He was the only one to screenshot lol’”

“From Nam1 - ‘What a fucking dumbass’” 

“From Z0r0 - ‘How will you deal with this boss?’”

“From Luffy - ‘I’ll fight him. Duh’”

“From Nam1 - ‘Date? Time? Location? Who do I tell?’” 

“From Luffy - ‘Friday at five. At the park on the corner of Moby-Dick Street. Tell the guys Torao hangs with and anyone who’s NOT a Whitebeard OR a revolutionary.’” 

“From Z0r0 - ‘True, can’t have your bros finding out.’”

“From Sogeking - ‘With how big this is gonna be, they might anyway…’” 

Those were the only important ones that Law could manage to read before he became too tired to comprehend words. The rest all appeared to be people gossiping about the fight. In Law’s opinion, Luffy was far too good at planning a fist-fight. He supposed that this was the reason why Luffy was so comfortable in a principal’s office. Honestly, Law wouldn’t have been surprised if Luffy had been in a police station.

Just as Law had begun to doze, he heard it. Light sniffling, coming from down the hall. This prompted Law to follow the sound, which led him straight to Bepo’s room. Law walked inside, he didn’t need to knock. He pulled the blanket off from over Bepo’s head. It was then that he found the cause of the mysterious sniffling. Bepo, eyes red and porcelain face smeared with tears. Law found himself pulling the same pitying face he had mentally chastised Cora for earlier. But in this moment, Bepo looked so weak and terrified. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Bepo was less hardened by trauma as Law was.

Law crawled into the small bed beside Bepo, cramming their bodies against each other like Inuits dying of hypothermia. Bepo wrapped his arms around Law and snuggled into his chest, the room itself was cold in the August air, but Law couldn’t believe if that was the reason for Bepo’s snuggling, or simply the sense of comfort and safety that Law provided. Either way, Law didn’t mind. 

At one point, not long after Bepo’s sniffling had ceased and he had fallen asleep, Law heard Cora open the door, then he left. Soon however, Cora returned. For such a tall, muscular man, Cora could move incredibly quietly. Law though, was used to Cora’s presence and could feel in his bones when the man entered the room. Law heard Cora move to the window on the other side of the room, past the bed. He heard Cora close the blind and leave as quick as he had come. Law had to give Cora some credit. In the entire time Cora was in the room, Bepo hadn’t stirred an inch. Law listened as Cora tiptoed back to his own bedroom and waited until he had closed the door. 

Law opened his phone, the brightness now down on low. The first thing he noticed was a private message from Luffy. “I’m across the road from the school. Meet me there.” Was all it read. The message was vague to say the least. Law didn’t care.

Law unwound Bepo’s arms from his torso and stepped out of the room, following the same method Cora had taught him years ago. He crept down the hall, taking special notice of the creaky spots in the wooden floor. He arrived at his bedroom and snatched the coat from his wardrobe. It was long and black and made of faux fur, very much Law’s style. Law slipped on and tied up his _Converse High-tops_ and walked to his window. He stepped from the window sill to the large bough of the oak tree that grew next to the house. He pulled down the blind and closed the window once more. Giving himself not a single moment to remember Cora’s lecture from only two hours ago, Law jumped. He landed on the soft grass below in a quiet tuck-and-roll maneuver.

Law took off running full speed towards the school. No thoughts occupying his mind other than Luffy and what he could possibly want. As his shoes hit the pavement, Law never thought for a moment about the consequences of his current actions, the terror he would inflict on Cora and Bepo if they found his bed empty tomorrow morning. He never thought for a single second that he might just be walking directly into his own demise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooo hooo hears a surprise. A new chapter after only four days... i wanted to be nice cuz i abandoned you guys for a while. don't be shy in the comments lovelies <3 Also a BIG SHOUT OUT to @Aeroclash Thanks for all the support doll, you've been the only thing that keeps me writing a lot of the time <3 <3

**Author's Note:**

> Be kind in the comments please ;)


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